A Comprehensive Beginner's Guide to Creating Short Links

URL shorteners are some of the most underrated digital marketing tools. In this era of digital marketing, knowledge of URL shorteners is crucial for success. Often, new marketers don't get exposed to short links early in their digital marketing careers. Luckily, we've prepared a comprehensive guide that will usher new marketers to the concept of creating branded links for their websites.

Understanding what short links are

Before we dig deeper into URL shorteners, it is important to understand what they are. We'll put it into perspective and provide practical examples to understand what short links are and why they are important.

In its basic form, a short link can be defined as a link whose length has been reduced. Usually, the length of the URL is long and hard to memorize. Let's face it, you'll barely remember the exact URL of any website because of its length. Therefore, to make it more memorable, you can shorten it.

Furthermore, social media posts have a limit to the number of characters that can be used. This makes it impossible to input the URL of your website when you are sharing a social media post. But when you use a short link, you will be able to have your URL included in the social media post.

Benefits of using short links

Before you learn how to create short links, you must familiarize yourself with the benefits that you will get. These benefits will motivate you to take fast action to actualize your short links.

• The first benefit that you get is the generation of more web traffic. Shorts links are sharable on social media, making more people visit your original URL
• They are also helpful in analytics. You can keep track of the number and demographics of people visiting your URL. This valuable piece of information helps marketers to create working strategies that can increase sales
• Branded links are neat and professional. When you include them as part of your digital marketing campaign, your brand will stand out.

Of course, the benefits of using branded custom links are more than what we've mentioned. Let's retain our focus on teaching you how to create short links for your marketing campaign.

How to create short links

Now that you understand what short links are and know their top benefits, let's quickly review how you can create one for your brand. Well, because of the nature of professionalism required, you have to start by choosing a URL shortener service. Our recommendation is the use of Lnnkin.com. It is an ideal service for beginners because of how easy it is to use it.

We'll be explaining how the process works, but when you use Lnnkin.com, the whole process takes just a few seconds to generate short links for your brand.

Types of short links

As a marketer, you'll have two options i.e. branded or unbranded.

Branded short links use the name of your company as the prefix. It is mainly for branding purposes, which helps in creating or increasing brand awareness. You can setup your own branded domains in the link shortener service to create branded links.

On the other hand, unbranded doesn't have any type of prefix used. It is a simple URL that redirects people back to the original URL.

Which one should you choose?

The first major decision that you will make after selecting the short link service provider is to decide the type of short links that you will use. Branded or unbranded? Well, you're likely to settle on branded links because of the branding awareness benefits that you get. However, your marketing goals can redirect you to use unbranded links. Therefore, the key is to use a type that informs your marketing goals. Branded links are for brand awareness while unbranded can be used across many websites. Additionally, you will have to spend some extra money for purchasing and keeping your branded domains.

Best practices for creating your short links

If you are using Lnnkin.com, you don't have to pay attention to the best practices for creating short links because the service provider will ensure that they are included. However, it is still important to understand these practices that define the effective creation of short links.

Make it short

The effectiveness of a short link is to make it short! Don't overcomplicate the short link by adding unnecessary words. It is important to avoid generic words that are likely to be used by other websites. Ideally, a custom branded link should include the name of the company and relevant keywords that can help people to find you.

Type the URL correctly

Did you know that short links are case-sensitive? This means that you must type the URL correctly for it to work. The best approach is to copy and paste the URL directly. Just to be sure that the link is working, you should test them out first. Also, you might want to add tracking codes that will gather data on web traffic and the performance of the short link.

Include short links in your social media posts

Short links work well in social media. You should capitalize on this information and add short links to all your social media posts. It can help you generate a greater audience that might increase sales.

Create different short links for your domains

Another important short link strategy is to create different short links for each domain that you have. It will help you to know the kind of visitors that you have in each domain that you have. It also provides tracking information for different types of content.

Check URL availability

Before you start the process of creating a short link, you should ensure that the URL hasn't been used. Your service provider can help you track this information.

These are some of the most important practices for creating short links. For a beginner, they may sound a bit complex. With the help of an experienced short links creator like Lnnkin, you can start the process without worrying about understanding the finer details of these practices.

Conclusion

The importance of short links in digital marketing cannot be wished away. As a marketer, you have to use them to advance your marketing agenda. Always ensure that you use competent services to enjoy the benefits of using short links for branding and marketing.