Best Tools To Shorten Your Landing Page URL
Landing page URL shorteners make visiting your website fast and simple. Learn about the best tools to shorten your landing page URL today.
The URL for your website landing page is the gateway through which all customers, viewers and fans visit your site. You want your URL to be memorable and convenient to type. Choosing the exact URL you desire is not always possible, however. Consumers are also wary of longer links, which give the appearance of potential spam. Longer links also look significantly less professional. This has a potentially adverse impact on the impressions people have of your website and the business or venture it represents. Thankfully, tools such as URL shorteners are available to help shorten your landing page URL so visitors are able to type it quickly and remember it after only one visit. Continue reading to learn all you need to know about the best tools to shorten your landing page URL today.
Why Your Landing Page Is Important
An online presence is a necessity for any business, agency, or entrepreneurial venture. A landing page is the gateway through which visitors to a website enter the site. Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) essentially refer to the location of a specific webpage (or even a single file) online. The landing page is typically the first impression customers, fans, clients, or general viewers have of whatever your website represents. If your landing page is hard to find and/or access, likely so is your entire website.
What Is a Link Shortener?
The URL for your website landing page needs to be easy to type and remember. This ensures your website entices repeat visitors, or visitors at all. For example, if prospective visitors to your website suspect a URL as containing and/or leading to spam they are highly likely to avoid it. Longer URLs often tend to give such a spammy impression. Online consumers are also commonly looking for fast access and instant gratification. Longer URLs are harder to type and even harder to remember, which has an adverse impact on potential visitors’ impressions. A long URL also looks significantly less professional than a concise and convenient URL your visitors can easily click on, type, and remember.
Unfortunately, website owners do not always get the luxury of choosing the exact website URL they desire. Some choose longer URLs before they realize the benefits a shorter URL provides as well. A link shortener is a handy tool, which converts long URLs into concise user-friendly links. Services such as Bitly, for example, would convert a long hypothetical URL such as “example.net/mywebsite/landingpage/welcome-to-my-website” into “bit.ly/MySite.”
Here’s What a Short URL Generator Does
The process is fundamentally simple but how do URL shorteners work? URL shorteners function through a process referred to as URL redirection. URL redirection operates exactly as it sounds: An entered URL address is redirected to another URL via a web server process. Your original longer URL does not change its name or address during this process. It is simply not initially seen by viewers.
Think of URL redirection as a faster detour off an early exit ramp and away from a traffic jam. When you see potential traffic or other types of delays ahead on your GPS, you want to find the quickest way to reroute your travel to reach your destination on time. Online shoppers and website visitors are highly likely to move on to the next available website if the one they are looking at in front of them presents any types of delays or inconveniences. A URL shortener is a short-cut to help people get to your landing page fast, and before deciding to go to another site instead.
Benefits of Using a Link Shortener Service
The benefits of using a URL shortener are multiple. Visitors to your website are more likely to return because the experience of arriving at your landing page was simple and fast. New visitors are more likely to click on or type a shorter URL, which increases traffic to your landing page and online venture. Short URLs are also:
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Easier for consumers to remember.
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More professional-looking.
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Conducive to new and repeat business.
Costs, Providers and Set-Up
Link shorteners range in price from free to $350 or more. Prices are set based on number of links supported, length of active plan (for example, monthly or annual service) and features. The obvious primary feature provided by all URL shorteners is the shortening of URLs and links. Many of the best paid URL shorteners also provide additional features such as analytics, link retargeting support and even QR codes. Set-up is typically easy as well. Paid URL shortener tools require users to register a user account and set up a subscription. Most features once inside your account are automatically handled by the tools themselves. Simply enter the information requested when prompted and watch your URLs shorten to convenient lengths fast.
TinyURL is the most popular free URL shortener available today. This convenient URL shortener tool is designed for anonymous usage (users are not required to register an account for access). Redirection is fast when using TinyURL. Users are able to customize their shortened URLs as well. Because the tool is free, its features are limited. For example, no analytics features are included. TinyURL is quite simple to use, however. Combined with its availability free-of-charge, TinyURL is the best option for URL owners looking for simple free options to shorten their URLs.
Bitly is another popular free URL shortener tool. This tool is powerful in both its free and paid versions, although the paid version has significantly more features. For example, for prices starting at $29 per month (annual billing option), Bitly includes an analytics dashboard, custom domain connection and customized shortened URLs. Paid Bitly users also benefit from TweetDeck and Zapier integration, audience intelligence and cloud hosting features.
Linktree is yet another popular URL shortener today. Linktree allows users to begin for free or start with a paid program (and more features) right away. The creation of a “link tree” is fast. IN fact, Linktree claims it is possible to do so in only seconds. Paid Linktree plans cost $5, $9, and $24 per month respectively, each with more features than the preceding smaller plans. A few more of the best link and URL shortener tools on the market today include:
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Campsite (free; paid programs from $7 per month).
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Bio.fm (free signup; paid premium plan is $10 per month).
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Shorby (from $15 per month).
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Rebrandly (free starter plan; paid plans range between $29 and $499 per month; enterprise plans available via private quote only).
