Why does everyone use bitly?
-
Why do people use bitly? I thought it was just a way to share a link on twitter if the link was too long in url.
I see SeoMoz shares all their content with a bitly link. Even when they share it on Google+. Why?
-
sometimes you need to not worry about if/then SEO factors because that's how we end up falling into magic trick traps. Sometimes it's truly more valuable to allow other reasons to be the decider.
-
I'm a bit skeptical of using bit.ly. When someone does a 301 redirect some of the link juice gets lost, not ,much but some. Using a shortner will 301 the user. As Alan stated bit.ly is great for tracking and keeping your tweets within character limit.
Please don't quote me on this but Google has their own shortner goo.gl, perhaps Google's shortner will pass all the juice...
-
there are many ways to track traffic, however if you use a shortener service like bitly, you get a shorter URL for easier / cleaner distribution, you can rapidly evaluate a specific URL's performance tied directly to a specific marketing campaign method, and when other people spread that shortened link, it's just as effortless to track click-through for that specific initiative regardless of how many times that is shared. Much easier than digging into analytics and setting up unique campaigns.
It is of course, far from perfect, and there are many ways to get the data - bitly is just one and it's handy. Especially with the functionality of generating the unique shortened URL on the fly which is much faster than setting up custom tracking campaigns in GA.
-
Can't you use google analytics to determine people are coming to your site?
-
bitly is one of the most well established shortener services available. They provide click-through data across several data points. This helps site owners track the relative success or shortcomings of content they wish to promote, and can be used to determine what works and what doesn't from a marketing and promotion perspective.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Best use of an old domain?
I've discovered that my clients website used to have another domain name, which they still own but don't use. It's doing OK considering its not been used for a few years - almost 6,000 backlinks showing on Majestic. So what's the best way of using this for SEO? I'm presuming some kind of redirecting? A simple redirect of everything on the domain to the new domain index page? Or going trough all the old pages and redirecting them one by one?
Technical SEO | | abisti20 -
Do you get penalized in search results when you use a heading tag, but it's not technically a heading (used for emphasis)?
Do you get penalized in search results when you use a heading tag, but it's not technically a heading? My clients are using heading tags for text they want to emphasize and make stand out. Does this affect search rankings for SEO?
Technical SEO | | jthompson05130 -
Use hreflang language or hreflang language & country code
Hi, our website has 7 languages, but only one English version (site.com/en). When I add a hreflang tag below, is it enough to just target English search queries no matter where they come from by using only the language code, or should I specify all countries (UK, USA, Ireland, Australia, NZ, ...) by using separate hreflangs? Same for Portuguese, Dutch & French... Should I just add the language tags or specify all countries? Like I said, we don't have localized versions for those countries, with specific content targeting those countries.
Technical SEO | | jorisbrabants0 -
Using 302s to redirect pages returning in 6 months
We are doing a 2-phase site redesign (in order to meet a deadline). An entire section of the site will not be available in the first phase, but will come back in 6 months. The question is, do we use 301s or 302s for those pages that will be coming back in 6 months? Is there a time limit on what is considered "temporary"? thanks in advance!
Technical SEO | | Max_B0 -
Using Web Applications for SEO
I am in the sign/banner business, for years I have had a flash based web application that I developed which allows customers to design their own signs/banners online. With the demise of flash i am prompted to begin developing an HTML5 based application to take it's place. Developing this software is a rather expensive endeavor so many local sign shops, which don't sell on the web, don't bother to develop such an application, but what if i gave it to them? I assume a fair amount would find great value in such an application thereby allowing their clients to communicate a design idea without having to drive to the store front. The application would actually run embedded on my site thus earning me a link back to my site. Question is this: Is this a bad idea. If dozens of sign shops are running my application embedded on their sites will the help or hurt me? Thanks.
Technical SEO | | RocketBanner0 -
Anyone having issues using Keyword Analysis and Rank tracking lately?
Seems it works once, maybe, then replies with a message that it can't complete the process when trying another keyword. _Cindy Barnard
Technical SEO | | CeCeBar0 -
How to attach at text to image that other websites use from my website
I often have other websites link to my website. They will do this with an image that they pull off of my website. (actually my website continues to serve the image). These inbound links are great, but they don't have alt text. Is there a way for me to attach alt text to the images, or is this something the other website needs to code themselves?
Technical SEO | | EugeneF0 -
Used SEOMOZ top 100 Directories, my site ranking lowered, what can we do to fix this?
We have made a big mistake.... So what can we do to fix this? A trainee member of staff has used the seomoz 100 top directories and added to sites from PR10 to PR6 approx about 25 sites, using keywords were possible instead of using the website URL "which i now was stupid!. Our website ranking have been lowered big time for all keywords used!, eg from 1st to 10th and even disappeared from the top 100 We are contacting all directories asking for the Title link to be changed to the URL instead of a keyword.. Will this help? I understand that Google give sites a penalty for this!!, but what can i do to put this right and how long would this penalty last for? Any advice would be highly appreciated... Thanks Dean
Technical SEO | | deanpallatt0