What Are Shortened and Pretty URLs

I’m aware that a ton of newbies read this blog, so we’re going to start from the very beginning :-)  Shortened and pretty URLs are “better” versions of an original URL.  They are just what they sound like:

Shortened URLs

Is a long URL that has been shortened and set-up as a redirect to the longer URL.  For example, using a URL shortening service will:

• Take this:  http://websuccessdiva.com/shortened-pretty-url-guide/
• And turn it into this:  http://twurl.nl/2ub6p0

They both go to the same place, one is just shorter than the other.  The point is simply to shorten the URL

Benefits of Shortened URLs

When using the right shortened URL service, you’ll be able to track the click-throughs on each link.  Tracking is always a plus with marketing, because it helps you make better decisions in the future based on how many or how little people click through.

Pretty URLs

Is a shorter, prettier version of a longer URL.  For example, creating a pretty URL will:

• Take this:  http://websuccessdiva.com/shortened-pretty-url-guide/
• And turn it into this:  http://websuccessdiva.com/urls/

Like the shortening of URLs, they both go to the same place, one is just prettier than the other.

Benefits of Pretty URLs

When you create pretty URLs you’re basically just making it easier for people to remember or type the URL directly.  When you use your main domain, you’re also branding your domain.  Technically, if you make the pretty URL short enough, you’re actually shortening the URL too.

Choosing  Between a Shortened and Pretty URL

First, let me say, we’re not referring to how to pretty up your form or database driven site URLs.  That simply goes beyond the scope of this post and requires much more technical information based on your software platform, etc.  We’re referring to the manual process of shortening links, including affiliate links, links you share via email marketing, links you share on a teleconference call, etc.

What’s the big diff right?

Shortened URLs tend to be done automatically by services.  Pretty URLs can be achieved by both manually creating them or using a free or paid service that shortens and makes them pretty.

Which do I use?

Your options are wide open.  Here’s what we recommend:

• If you’re posting affiliate links or links that are actually clicked online, without people having to remember them and type them in, shortened and pretty will work — your preference is the version that provides tracking!
• If you’re using URLs that must be typed in by memory, like those given on a teleconference call, then you’ll definitely want to use pretty URls — your preference is the version that is trackable, but in most cases there are other ways to track through Google Analytics too.

You’re preference is always to use any URL that allows for some form of tracking.  Everything you do in marketing should be trackable in some shape or form.  You’ll never know how to market for your company and your audience without it.

How We Use Shortened and Pretty URLs

We use shortened URLs for all our social media updates through Ping.FM and on Twitter. We currently love and use the free service TweetBurner.com.  After removing the setting for automatica shortening in Ping.FM, every time we post a link on our social media updates, it’s a TweetBurner link.  Why?  Because people click it right there and it doesn’t have to be pretty — but we like to see the click tracking provided.

We use pretty URLs for all of our teleconference calls, links within emails, and links that could be shared verbally (like offline marketing materials). We manually create these links so that they are always linke to our domain — for branding purposes (especially important when doing teleconference calls or offline marketing).  This limits our ability to track the URL click-throughs, however, we’ve devised other ways to do so through breaking down our Google Analytics.  It’s a judgment call we’ve made based on our priorities in marketing.

In rare instances, we’ll pay for a shortening service that also creates pretty URLs and provides tracking. We’re all about low-cost or free services (because that’s what we teach our audience), but in some cases like during a very important campaign, we’ll use a paid service that allows for all three benefits.  This is rare, because our niche is teaching low-cost alternatives — so we practice what we preach.

We use pretty URLs for all links heading into our social media profiles, like Twitter and Facebook, when shared in email. It brands our domain and allows for easy typing in later.  These URLs look like this:  http://websuccessdiva.com/fbfan/ or  http://websuccessdiva.com/twitter/

Shortened and Pretty URL Options

What you want to use will depend on how you feel about shortened with tracking versus pretty with branding.  It’s a business decision that only you can make, and should be directed by your objectives and nothing else :-)  Let’s take a look at manual pretty URLs and after that, services that shorten and pretty-fy your URLs.

Manually Creating Pretty URLs

One of the easiest and cheapest ways to create pretty URLs is to just do them yourself.  It’s easy, if you know how and where to upload files to your site or blog.  The key premise to remember, is you’re just creating a URL that automatically re-directs to another page, after someone clicks on it.

You’ll need to have access to your site or blog’s FTP, for the ability to upload files. If you’re not sure how to do this, it’s easy to learn — but there are alternatives, including paid services that will create them for you.  You can download our favorite free FTP client, CoreFTP here.

You’ll need your FTP login information, which typically looks like this:

• Server name:  ftp.domainname.com
• Username:  given by hosting, like “websuccessdiva”
• Password: given by hosting, like “snoopy123″

You’ll need to use a text editor like the one that comes with Windows, NotePad under “Accessories” in your start menu. This will allow you to edit a simple HTML file, save it, then upload it into a folder on your website or blog.

Step 1:  Set-up a folder on your Desktop

Set up a folder on your desktop, named whatever you’ll remember, that will hold all the shortened/pretty URL folders you’ll create.  This just makes it easier for you to access and manage.  I called my URLS:

Step 2:  Download and Save the necessary HTML file.

You’ll need a copy of a redirecting HTML file, to add your links to for creating your pretty URLs.  You can download the HTML file here.  Always keep the title/name of the page as “index.html” — you’ll understand why in a bit.  (Be sure to right-click it and “Save As” into the folder you just created on your desktop.  Name it index.html)

Step 3:  Open your file in NotePad, a text editor, or an HTML editor.

You can use NotePad (which comes with any Windows computer), any other text editor you have on your computer, or a free HTML editor like HTML-Kit (we use).  You’ll simply open the index.html file you previously downloaded and saved in whatever tool you prefer.

Step 3: Open the HTML file in NotePad (or other text and/or html editor).

Note: If you’re using NotePad or other TEXT editor, you’ll need to set the “file type” to all, so it shows the HTML files and not just .txt files.

Here’s how the file looks in NotePad:

Here’s what it looks like in an HTML editor:

You can download a free HTML editor here.

Step 4: Using the HTM editor, create your re-directed code.

You’ll need to edit two things in the HTML file to create your re-directing URL:

* Change the Title tag to represent what it is you’re sending people to.
* Change the link to the actual link you want people to go to.

It looks like this in the code on the HTML editor:

We changed Web Success Diva Social Internet Marketing to…

Shortened and Pretty URL Guide from Web Success Diva

and URL=LINK YOU WANT REDIRECT TO GOES HERE to…

URL=http://websuccessdiva.com/shortened-pretty-url-guide/

Note the spacing when adding the link, there is none.

What we did…

We changed the title that will show on the users browser bar and we added the link we want the clicker to go to.

Here’s what the change looks like in NotePad:

Step 5: Save the index.html file in your desktop folder, within a subfolder to create the pretty link.

You create your pretty link by naming your subfolder what you want the pretty link to say. Examples:

* Naming your subfolder urls creates the pretty link
http://websuccessdiva.com/urls/
* Naming your subfolder prettylinks creates the pretty link
http://websuccessdiva.com/prettylinks/
* Naming your subfolder websuccessdiva creates the pretty link
http://websuccessdiva.com/websuccessdiva/

You get the picture… Why does this work? Because when you upload it (which we’ll show you next) you’re creating a folder with an index.html file in it. Web browsers will automatically default by sending people to whatever is in that index.html file - when your link is typed as a folder. Don’t get it? Don’t worry, just know it works, across all browsers
In other words…

http://websuccessdiva.com/urls/ tells the web browser to automatically go to:
http://websuccessdiva.com/urls/index.html

http://websuccessdiva.com/prettylinks/ tells the web browser to automatically go to:
http://websuccessdiva.com/prettylinks/index.html

http://websuccessdiva.com/websuccessdiva/ tells the web browser to automatically go to: http://websuccessdiva.com/websuccessdiva/index.html

And the index.html file tells the web browser to go to the link you added into it…

Next, save your index.html with the new changes into a subfolder with the name of the pretty URL you are creating.

Keep it short, no caps (the URLs are case-sensitive) and all one word. Make it applicable to what you’re sending people to, for ease in remembering when typing in. We rarely use numbers or anything that isn’t “words” based. On my computer, we saved the changed index.html file into a subfolder titled “prettyurls”:

Step 6: Upload the folder, with the new index.html file inside of it — to your the domain you’re creating the pretty folder for.

This step can be tricky for some, depending on how your hosting is set-up. It may look something like the below examples.

If you’re domain is the main one on your hosting, and not a subfolder or additional domain on your hosting, you’ll upload the folder to your root directory.  Take a look:

Folders are automatically listed alphabetically, you can see above, there is not a public folder on my WebSuccessDiva domain.

You can see the folders I’m using for pretty URLs above too,

like “pingfm” and “shinein09″

For domains that have a public folder like “public_html” or “html_publich”, your FTP looks like this:

You need to upload the entire subfolder (in my case named “prettyurls”) to your main domain (it will automatically transfer the index.html file within the subfolder). I uploaded the folder I created above titled “prettyurls” with my new index.html file inside of it…

Inside the subfolder I uploaded to my main domain, you can see the index.html file we changed:

If you have a “public_html” or “html_public” folder on your domain, open it and that is now your main domain folder, upload your entire subfolder in there. (What that folder looks like in FTP below):

As you see below, the changed index.html file is included in my new subfolder “prettyurls”:

If your the domain you want to use is in a subfolder or is a secondary domain on your hosting account, it would look like this when it’s uploaded:

Wherever your main domain is, when your new subfolder is uploaded correctly, your pretty URL will point people to the link inside your index.html file…

http://websuccessdiva.com/prettyurls/

takes you to…

http://websuccessdiva.com/shortened-pretty-url-guide/

click the link and see

Free and Paid Shorten and Pretty URL Services

We understand, not everyone is technical or even wants to go there. Or, you may only want to create links you can track. Below is a list of possibilities in shortening and prettying up your URLs. Where applicable, we’ve marked them as shorteners, prettiers, and free or paid service.  (Yes, we even take a look at the new Joel Comm TwitPwr)

Special Notes:  All services are listed in alphabetical order, not by preference or recommendation. We’ve noted recommended services with a picture of the service.  We did not list services that were not in English (would have taken hours and hours), and we did not include services that are ad-supported or require registration for ad-free shortening (lame!).

A2N: Free Service, Pretty and Shortened URL with A2N domain.  http://a2n.eu/

BeamTo: Free Service, Shortened and Pretty URL with BeamTo domain. http://beam.to/start.asp

BudURL: Free and Paid Service, Shorten URL for free with tracking.  You can also upgrade for extensive tracking and custom URLs.  http://budurl.com/ It looks like this…

CanURL: Free service, Shortened and Pretty URL with CanURL domain.  http://www.canurl.com/

C-O.IN: For completeness I’m listing this, however, in recent months, they’ve had quite a few database and site issues, causing users to have to re-signup with links going dead. At this time we do not recommend them, but here’s the link incase you want to check it out. http://www.c-o.in/myred/home.php

DecentURL: Free service, Shorten and Pretty URL with subdomained Decent URL.  http://decenturl.com/

DigBig: Free service, Shortens URL with DigBig domain. They require complete registration before using, and market to your email after you register. There are plenty of other services that don’t, but if you want to check it out: http://web.digbig.com/?dest=http://web.digbig.com/

DoIop: Free service, Shortens and Pretty URLs with DoIop domain.  http://doiop.com/

Durl.us: Free service, Shortens URL with Durl domain. They also offer a bookmarklet. However, over the past months, they’ve had database issues and the links are not always reliable. But, incase you want to check it out: http://durl.us/

DwarfURL: Free service, Shorten and Pretty URls with DwarfURL domain. They also let you password protect the shortened URL.  http://www.dwarfurl.com/

EasyURL: Free service, Shorten and Pretty URL with your choice of domain. You also have the ability to use real-time stats as well.  http://easyurl.net/ EasyURL looks like this…

EZUrl: Free service, Shorten and Pretty URL with EZURL domain. Allows for masking and access to URL after publish for changes.  http://www.ezurl.eu/

Flingk: Free service, Shorten URL with Flingk domain just like other simple URL shortening services. http://flingk.com/index.php

Fly2: Free service, Shorten URL with Fly2 domain just like other simply URL shortening services. Allows you to create avatar and link back to your blog or website too. http://www.fly2.ws/

HotRedirect: Free service, Shorten URL with HotRedirect and a choice of other domains. http://www.hotredirect.com/

Is.Gd: Free service, Shorten URL with Is.Gd domain just like other simple URL shortening services. Also allows you to mask email addresses. http://is.gd/

MemURL: Free service, Shorten URL with MemURL domain just like other simple URL shortening services.  http://memurl.com/

MetaMark: Free service, Shorten URL with MetaMark domain just like others, but also allows you to password protect the shortened link.  http://metamark.net/

MooURL: Free service, Shorten URL with MooURL domain like others, and you can follow them on Twitter :-)  http://moourl.com/

MyURL: Free service, Shorten URL with MyURL domain like others, and you can send out anonymous links as well as links that protect content on free hosting sites.  http://myurl.in/

NanoRef: Free service, Shorten URL with NanoRef domain like other services.  You can also password protect your shortened links.  http://nanoref.com/

NotLong: Free service, Shorten URL with NotLong domain like other services.  You can also create a custom subdomain.  http://notlong.com/

ReDirx: Free service, Shorten URL with ReDirx domain like other services.  http://redirx.com/

RubyURL: Free service, Shorten URL with RubyURL domain like other services.  http://rubyurl.com/home

Shim.Net: Free service, Shorten URL with your choice of 7 domains like other services.  http://www.shim.net/index.phtml

ShorterLink: Free service, Shorten URL with your ShorterLink domain like other services.  http://shorterlink.com/

ShortLinks: Free service, Shorten URL with the ShorteLinks domain like other services.  http://shortlinks.co.uk/

ShortURLs: Free service, Shorten URL with customized subdomains like other services.  http://www.shorturl.com/

Shorty: Free service, Shorten URLs from and on  your own server.  http://get-shorty.com/

ShotURL: Free service, Shorten URLs with customized domain like other services.  http://shoturl.us/

SimURL: Free service, Shorten URLs with SimURL domain like other services.  http://simurl.com/

SnipURL: Free service, Shorten URLs with SnipURL domain like other services.  Also has Web 2.0 like features including a profile page, share SnipURLs and more.  http://snipurl.com/site/index It looks like this…

StartURL: Free service, Shorten URLs with StartURL domain like other services.  http://www.starturl.com/index.php

TightURL: Free service, Shorten URLs with TightURL domain like other services.  http://tighturl.com/

TiniUri: Free service, Shorten URL with TiniUri domain like other services.  http://tiniuri.com/

TinyLink: Free service, Shorten URL with TinyLink domain like other services.  http://www.digipills.com/tinylink/introsafe.htm

TinyURL: Free service, Shorten URL with TinyURL domain like other services.  Also allows you to see a preview of where your link goes to make sure it works.  http://tinyurl.com/

TraceURL: Free service, Shorten URL with TraceURL domain like other services.  Also allows you to see how many clicks you received on the shortened link.   http://traceurl.com/index.html?locale=en#t0

TubeURL: Free service, Shorten URL with TubeURL domain like other services.  http://tubeurl.com/

TweetBurner: Free service, Shorten URL with tracking.  Advertised as a Twitter link shortener, we use it across the board because it’s so easy.  http://www.tweetburner.com They do require login for tracking, but since their inception, we’ve never received marketing or SPAM emails, so they are the exception to our rule.   It looks like this…

ULimit: Free service, Shorten URL with choice of many domains like other services.  http://www.ulimit.com/en/

URLCut: Free service, Shorte URL with URLCut domains like other services.  Also let’s you password protect your shortened links.  http://urlcut.com/

URLHawk: Free service, Shorten URL with URLHawk domain like other services.  Also hides the link you are directing to from the clicker.  http://urlhawk.com/

URLIE: Free service, Shorten URL with URL.ie domain like other services.  http://url.ie/

Yep.it: Free service, Shorten URL with Yep.it domain like other services.  Site shows top clicked urls too.  http://yep.it/

6URL: Free service, Shorten URL with semi-pretty link using 6URL domain.  http://6url.com/

Special Case:  TwitPwr http://www.twitpwr.com

We have NOT had a chance to use this service.  However, it’s a new service by Joel Comm and it appears to be good on one side and not-so-good on the other.  Here’s how the service looks when it shortens your links:

However, when people click the link, they get a framed header above the site you are sending them to, that looks like this…

The link to your Twitter username doesn’t take you to your Twitter profile, it creates a page like this:

Only after they click the “Follow Me on Twitter” does it foward to your actual Twitter profile.  It does not automatically connect them with you on Twitter.  If they land on your Twitter profile, and they are not cookied as logged in, they have to login and ONLY then can they actually follow you — like this…

Here’s my immediate thoughts on this:

1. First, everyone in IM knows, the more clicks the less likely your peeps will follow through on intended actions.
2. Second, most people who see a framed header, because of the bad rep they have, might be immediately turned off and suspicious of anything your promoting.
3. Third, isn’t it set-up to promote more so the service of TwitPwr with the link on the right side of that header, than it is to leverage the power of increasing  your Twitter users?  I mean, if so, that’s a brilliant idea, but not necessarily good for the person sharing the link.

Here’s what the service says:

Is it really the number of followers you have, or is the ability to get your followers to Take Action?

When you use the TwitPwr short url service, we track the number of clicks that you drive via the Twitter API, and give your account a Power Rating.

Your Power Rating is not only the unique traffic that you generate, but it’s also based on how many Twitter users you refer to our service.

Those referrals you generate will also play apart in driving even more traffic to your site.. Stay Tuned!

Here’s what I have to say:

It might be too early, given they are still in development (as noted with their copy on the “About” page above).  However, I totally agree it’s about how much action your followers take.  Tracking is based on how many clicks you get AND how many users you refer to the service.  However, why wouldn’t it really include how many people actually follow you after seeing what you’re offering — isn’t that more powerful?

Here’s my thinking, if you’re VALUABLE, if your links are “liked” or perceived as valuable, wouldn’t someone follow you as a result of it?  They should, or at least have a higher propensity to follow you.  I would like to see some tracking on the link above the header frame, and a secondary tracking on the follow link on TwitPwr’s profile page.  This would give you a greater indication of “action taken” and true power of influence on your Twitter followers.

It sounds like, the more clicks you get and the mo