URL Shortening - Short Links Provide Click Through Tracking and Twitter SEO

 Why shorten URLs?  

Remember when a friend would send you an email, and you couldn't click-through because it broke? Shortened internet URLs fixed this problem. And though TinyURL, one of the oldest URL shortening services, has been around since 2002, their competition has grown fierce-- and fast.   With the advent of Twitter and its 140 characters or less platform, shortening URLs became a no-brainer, and sites all over began popping up to offer this service.   I can't recall exactly how I stumbled upon 9mp.com, but I am faithful and impressed with the URL shortening service. I was lucky to interact with @JoshuaOdmark, one of 9mp's management team members, and a complete delight.   When I first began tweeting, I wondered if there wasn't a way to increase the relevance of these "TinyURLs." This was my answer.  On top of the nifty, custom URLs, what 9mp.com and other short URL sites offer is built-in real time analytics. Through my profile page, I can see a list of all my URLs, their shortened versions and how many hits each has gotten.   Each listing has a 'link details' button. This takes you to a useful page of information: a thumbnail of your site, tags, description, page type, and even your twitter results. Below this you will find charts. Charts that can follow your click through rate, link referrals, locations of those clicking your link, and whether or not these users are robots or human!   Sure, you can simply paste a URL into Twitter and watch it shrink, but here you have the opportunity to increase relevance so people really know what you are talking about, and to see if people out there are responding. All in all, it's a terrific Twitter SEO tool. In fact, you can use shortened URLs anywhere on the web that you want to track- whether it's on your Facebook profile or your own website.  

What else can you condense?  

Add Your Links:   Recently, a new URL shortening service debuted: ZumLink.com. ZumLink allows you to condense a list of URLs and gather them online link shotener all together in one link! The site is a project by German based internet company fiesta.net.  

Share Your Opinion:   Another new site, Write4Net.com, allows you to bypass the 140 character limit on Tweets by publishing your text content or photos directly through Twitter. You don't need to sign up or login, simply type into a template and enter your Twitter login, and Write4Net will publish a title and short URL, where other users can click to see your text or static image in its entirety. This site still has some usability issues, but is another great tool for sharing on Twitter, and anywhere else brevity is desired.  

Share Your Video:   With two great services to choose from, it's easy to Tweet video- Both TwitVid.com and TwitVid.io have great features. You can upload video from your phone, your computer, or post directly from your webcam, which is perfect for video blogging. Both sites also have an embedding feature you can use to post your video tweets on your blog or social network. TwitVid.io allows you to re-tweet, reply to and follow videos on their website. TwitVid.com offers its own API and real-time broadcasting from your webcam, so your followers can watch as you record!  

Share Your Photos:   If you haven't already used TwitPic, it makes photo sharing so simple! You don't even need to sign up- if you have a Twitter account, your login information works at TwitPic also. When you login you'll see your profile information, your username and the icon you use for Twitter. Click on "Upload Photo" and you have the option of posting your photos directly after they upload! You can upload through the site, your phone, or their API.  

Share Your Files:   FileTwt is another new site that allows you to upload documents and files to share on Twitter. The site has a 20 MB size limit (which may be changed in future versions) and gives you the choice of sending a public or private tweet. (Private tweets require signup with the site.)  

Share Your Music:   An impressive application, there are music sharing sites for micro-bloggers. From my standpoint, twt.fm seems to be the most user-friendly. At twt.fm you are required to login through your Twitter account. However, once you've done that, the interface is simple-to-use, no downloading required: Type in the name of the artist and song you'd like to post. The application hunts the web for a stream of your song, and when you click the preview button, you can hear the music and opt whether or not you'd like to Tweet. You can find other sites to do this as well, such as Song.ly, but what is unique to twt.fm is that if the site can't find a stream, you can submit an mp3, YouTube, SoundCloud or imeem link, and the interface will create the Tweet for you.  

Find your "shortened link provider" on this list of URL shortening services or go straight to 9mp.com. Again, there are so many applications being developed for micro-blogging sites such as Twitter-- Get out and explore. There is so much possibility, and new tools being launched every week. 

Visit the USO Networks for more articles on URL shortening. The USO Networks Blog focuses on internet marketing news and information, with an emphasis on the trends in online video, social media marketing and search engine optimization tips and techniques.