Link shortening: How to easily shorten links for your WordPress website

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For WordPress website owners who want to shorten and manage their links without complicated plugins, offers Bitly offers a user-friendly solution. This article explains how to Bitly can use to manage your URLs without technical complications. Shortening a link can be good for such things as: long URLs, easy link sharing and brand building.

What are left shorteners?

Link shorteners are tools that make long URLs shorter. These shortened links are easier to share on social media, in emails and other marketing materials. There are several services that offer to shorten your links, Bitly is 1 of them and very user-friendly.

Why link shortening for your WordPress website?

  1. Improved usability: Short links are more attractive and easier for users to remember. They also improve the readability of your posts on social media, which can generate more clicks.
  2. Efficient tracking and analytics: Most link shorteners offer detailed analytics, allowing you to see how many times a link was clicked, where those visitors came from, and other relevant data. This is crucial for measuring the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.
  3. Increased brand awareness: Some link shorteners let you create custom URLs that include your brand name. This strengthens your brand identity and increases trust with your target audience. It’s usually in the paid version of the service.
  4. Protection against URL changes: If the URL of a linked page changes, you can easily update the destination of the shortened link without changing the shortened URL itself. That way you have less chance of visitors ending up on a 404 page.

How do you set up a link shortener for your WordPress website?

Setting up a link shortener on Bitly for your WordPress website is easy. Follow these steps to get started:

  1. Create a free Bitly account: Visit the Bitly website and register for an account. This process is quick and does not require payment for basic functions.
  2. Shorten your links manually: Once you are logged in, you can start shortening links. Copy the URL you want to shorten, paste it into Bitly, and Bitly will automatically generate a shortened version for you.
  3. Manage your links: Save and manage your shortened links within your Bitly dashboard. You can access statistics such as the number of clicks and geographic distribution of users.
  4. Use shortened links on your website: You can then manually add the shortened links to your WordPress posts, pages, social media, emails or wherever you need them.
  5. Monitor performance: Track the performance of your links through the Bitly dashboard. This helps you gain insight into which content performs best and how to adjust your strategy.


By using this method, you get all the benefits of shortening links without the hassle of plugins. Bitly has a user-friendly interface that is quick and easy of managing your links.

Advantages

  • No technical skills required: Users need not concern themselves with technical details or programming.
  • Direct control: You have complete control over when and how you shorten and use links.
  • Speed: You can instantly shorten a link without depending on your website’s backend.

When do you use Bitly?

When managing your WordPress website, it is important to distinguish between external and internal links and how to optimize them. Bitly and other external link shorteners are excellent for sharing external URLs on social media or other platforms outside your website, but they are not suitable for managing internal links.

Don’t use Bitly for internal links

For internal navigation within your own website, the use of Bitly or other external link shorteners is not recommended. This is because such services can hinder direct and quick access to internal pages and affect your site’s SEO performance. External shortened links can also be confusing for users who expect to stay within the same site.

Use relative links for internal navigation

For links within your own domain, relative links are a better choice. They ensure that internal paths remain flexible and function correctly even if changes are made to the domain structure or hosting. Relative links improve page loading speed because they require less data than absolute links.

Still have questions or need help setting up Bitly? Then please contact us.

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