Do you want to create your own custom short URL for your website links? Just like we use “rplg.co” for our own branded short URLs, you can do the same for yours.
In this article, we’ll guide you through the straightforward process of crafting your custom short URLs.
Elevate your blog’s accessibility, streamline your links, and make sharing content a breeze with personalized web addresses that resonate with your audience.
What is a custom short URL?
A custom short URL, also known as a branded or vanity URL, is a shorter and customized version of a longer web address (URL). It’s designed to be easy to remember, share, and recognize.
Custom short URLs typically incorporate a brand’s name, a relevant keyword, or any other chosen text to create a web address that is more user-friendly and aligned with the entity’s identity.
Prominent brands and organizations leverage custom short URLs for streamlined online engagement. The New York Times employs “nyti.ms,” Coca-Cola opts for “cokeurl.com,” WWF uses “wwf.to,” the United Nations relies on “un.org,” and HubSpot chooses “hubs.ly.” These concise links enhance branding and simplify sharing across digital platforms.
Custom short URLs offer several benefits:
Memorability: They are easier to remember, making it simple for users to type or recall the link.
Branding: Custom short URLs reinforce brand identity and can include brand names or keywords.
User Experience: Shorter URLs improve the user experience by reducing clutter and enhancing readability.
Tracking: URL shortening services offer analytics, allowing you to track click-through rates and user engagement.
Social Media: On platforms with character limits, like Twitter, custom short URLs save space for your message.
How to create a custom short URL using Replug?
Replug is a URL shortener and branding tool that simplifies link management. It allows users to create custom short URLs, reinforcing brand identity and optimizing online marketing. With user-friendly domain customization and strong connectivity features, Replug streamlines the process of enhancing your online presence and sharing branded links.
To create a custom short URL using Replug, first add your custom domain:
Important note: By default, Replug generates links using our default shortener domain, rplg.co.
However, you have the option to enhance your branding and domain reputation by incorporating a custom domain. This allows you to use branded domains in your ads, social link-tracking campaigns, and email communications.
Navigate to “Settings” and select “Custom Domains” from the dropdown menu.
Step 2: Add a new domain
Click on “Add Domain” to initiate the process of creating your custom short URL.
Step 3: Connect the custom domain
On the next screen, provide the following details:
Domain URL: This is your branded or custom domain.
404 redirect URL: Specify where users should be directed if they land on a 404 error page.
Branded domain: This redirects users to the designated URL when they visit the root address of your brand’s domain.
Afterward, click the “Connect” button as shown on the screen.
Note: Once you have added your domain to the platform, the next step is to point CNAME in your domain registrar’s DNS. If you would like to redirect your root domain, please try adding @ or www. Some of the registrars do not allow the @ option, for that, you will have to add www as a HOST value.
Step 4: Manage your custom domain
After clicking “Connect,” your custom domain will be successfully added to your Replug account.
You can check the connectivity status, edit domain settings, or delete domains as needed.
Once you’ve added your custom domain to Replug, its time to create a custom short URL.
Shorten your links, amplify your brand.
Create shareable, trackable and fully customizable branded urls. Get more clicks with absolute link management features such as Bio Links, retargeting, deep Links, CTA’s and more.
Once you’re logged into your Replug dashboard, select “Select your campaign” to initiate a new campaign.
Note: In campaigns, you’ll find the custom domain you just created.
Paste the original link you want to shorten into the “URL to shorten” section. This link can point to a specific webpage, product, or content you wish to share. Click the blue “Create” button to generate a custom shortened URL.
Step 2: Customize your shortened URL
Replug offers the flexibility to customize your shortened URL. This means you can select a specific alias or keyword to incorporate into the shortened link. For instance, you can create a custom shortened URL like “replug.link/myproduct.”
Step 3: Configure link settings
Depending on your requirements, you can adjust additional settings for your custom URL link. These settings may include link expiration, tracking options, A/B testing, and more. Customize these settings according to your preferences and click the “Update” button to generate your custom shortened URL.
Step 7: Share your custom shortened URL
Utilize your custom-shortened URL in your marketing materials, social media posts, emails, or any content where you want to promote your link. Custom-shortened URLs are ideal for making lengthy and complex links more user-friendly.
Step 8: Monitor performance
Replug provides comprehensive analytics and tracking features, enabling you to monitor the performance of your custom shortened URLs. You can track the number of clicks, the geographic location of users, referral sources, and more.
End note:
Replug offers numerous benefits for branding, tracking, and enhancing the user experience. By shortening and customizing your URLs, you can make them more memorable and suitable for various marketing and promotional efforts.
With the ability to track performance and user interactions, Replug empowers users to optimize their online presence and marketing campaigns effectively.
Whether you’re promoting products, sharing content, or strengthening your brand identity, custom URL links created through Replug can play a vital role in your online strategy.
Branded Short Links
Create and track branded short links for your business for better conversions.
Yes, many URL shortening services, including Replug, allow you to use your custom domain for creating custom short URLs. This ensures that your brand is prominently featured in the links you share.
How do I track the performance of short URLs?
Most URL shortening services offer tracking and analytics tools that allow you to monitor the performance of your custom short URLs. You can track click-through rates, geographic location of users, and more to assess link effectiveness.
Are custom short URLs secure?
Custom short URLs are as secure as regular long URLs. However, like any link, they should be used with caution. Avoid clicking on unfamiliar custom short URLs, as they could potentially lead to malicious websites.
Arslan is a SaaS content marketer who crafts clear, engaging content that drives results. He simplifies complex ideas into easily understandable blog posts, landing pages, and emails, helping SaaS companies connect with their audience and grow.
Redirecting a URL to another destination is a fundamental skill in web development and online communication. Whether you’re rebranding a website, updating content, or optimizing user experience, the ability to seamlessly guide users from one web address to another is invaluable.
In this guide, we’ll explore various methods and step-by-step instructions on how to effectively redirect URLs, ensuring your online presence remains agile and user-friendly.
What is a URL redirect?
A URL redirect is a way to send users from one URL to another. This can be done for a variety of reasons, such as:
To improve the user experience by sending users to a more relevant or up-to-date page.
To prevent broken links by redirecting users to a new page that has replaced the old one.
To track website traffic by redirecting users to a different page depending on where they came from.
2 main types of URL redirects:
There are two main types of URL redirects: 301 redirects and 302 redirects.
A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect, which means that the old URL will no longer be used and all traffic should be directed to the new URL.
A 302 redirect is a temporary redirect, which means that the old URL may be used again in the future.
URL redirects can be set up by website administrators or by using a third-party service.
Method 1: HTTP redirects (status codes 301 and 302)
Step 1: Open your web server configuration file (e.g., Apache’s “.htaccess” for Apache servers) or use a control panel like cPanel.
Step 2: Add the following line to redirect the old URL to the new URL:
Replace “/old-page.html” with the path to the old URL and http://example.com/new-page.html with the new destination URL.
Step 3: Save the configuration file.
Step 4: The 301 redirect informs search engines that the old URL has permanently moved to the new URL.
Method 2: Using JavaScript for client-side redirect
Step 1: Insert the following JavaScript code in the <head> section of your HTML document:
Replace “http://example.com/new-page.html” with the URL you want to redirect to.
Step 2: When a user accesses the old URL, they will be automatically redirected to the new URL.
Method 3: Using meta refresh tag (HTML meta tag)
Step 1: Insert the following HTML <meta> tag in the <head> section of your HTML document:
Replace “http://example.com/new-page.html” with the new destination URL.
Step 2: The content attribute specifies the time delay (in seconds) before the redirect occurs. In this example, it’s set to 0, which means an immediate redirect.
Method 4: Using server-side scripting (e.g., PHP)
Step 1: Create a PHP file for the old URL (e.g., old-page.php).
Step 2: Add the following PHP code to the PHP file:
Replace “http://example.com/new-page.html” with the new destination URL.
Step 3: This PHP script sends an HTTP header to the browser, triggering a 301 redirect to the new URL.
Method 5: Using URL rewrite rules (Apache mod_rewrite or Nginx)
Step 1: For Apache, create or edit a .htaccess file in your website’s directory. For Nginx, edit your server block configuration.
Step 2: Add rewrite rules to redirect URLs. For example, for Apache with mod_rewrite:
Replace “old-page\.html$” with the old URL pattern and http://example.com/new-page.html with the new destination URL.
Step 3: Save the configuration file.
Step 4: These rules will redirect requests for the old URL to the new URL with a 301 status code.
Method 6: Using a content management system (CMS):
If your website is built on a CMS like WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal, there are usually plugins or settings within the CMS that allow you to set up URL redirects without directly editing server configuration files.
URL shorteners are commonly used for this purpose, especially when you want to create a shorter and more user-friendly URL that redirects to a longer or less user-friendly one.
Replug: Redirect long, complex URLs into short, user-friendly links
Replug is a popular URL shortening and link management platform that allows you to create short, branded, and trackable links.
Here’s how to redirect a URL to another URL using a URL shortener:
Step 1: Sign in to Replug or create an account for free.
Step 2: In your Replug dashboard, click “Select your campaign” then paste your long URL into the “URL to shorten” field and click the “Create” button.
Step 5: Replug provides analytics and tracking data for your short links. You can monitor click-through rates, geographic locations of users, and other insights to understand how your links are performing.
Replug simplifies the process of creating short, user-friendly links and managing URL redirection. It’s a valuable tool for individuals and businesses looking to make their links more accessible and trackable.
Shorten your links, amplify your brand.
Create shareable, trackable and fully customizable branded urls. Get more clicks with absolute link management features such as Bio Links, retargeting, deep Links, CTA’s and more.
You might need to redirect a URL to update content, change domain names, enhance SEO, or create user-friendly, easy-to-share links.
What’s the difference between a permanent (301) and a temporary (302) redirect?
A 301 redirect is permanent and tells search engines that the old URL has been permanently moved. Whereas, a 302 redirect is temporary and indicates a temporary move.
Can I manually redirect a URL without any technical knowledge?
Yes, you can use user-friendly methods like CMS plugins or online URL shorteners to perform redirection without technical expertise.
Which method should I choose for URL redirection?
The method depends on your goals. Use HTTP redirects for permanent changes, JavaScript for client-side changes, and plugins for CMS-driven websites.
What are the SEO implications of URL redirection?
Properly implemented 301 redirects can preserve SEO rankings during URL changes, but it’s essential to maintain content quality and relevance.
Arslan is a SaaS content marketer who crafts clear, engaging content that drives results. He simplifies complex ideas into easily understandable blog posts, landing pages, and emails, helping SaaS companies connect with their audience and grow.
We all love pizza or some kind of fast food. But what if your favorite fast food brand’s workers uploaded an unsettling video violating the health codes on social media – (there goes all your branding efforts down the hill)
Would you still be up to try that brand?
I don’t think so. The least you would do is stop going to that specific franchise.
Similar happened in the case of Domino’s where two workers uploaded a video on Youtube from Domino’s kitchen while preparing pizza and violating the health standards. The video went viral, and the company faced strong backlash over it.
With the right crisis response Domino’s averted serious consequences (more to the story).
While the advantages of social media are obvious, there are also some social media risks to be aware of. When something goes wrong, brands risk losing their reputations.
Companies must be cautious about what they publish online, and they must have a plan to address any issues that develop.
The key to effective social media risk management for brands consists of proactive monitoring, rapid response to negative content, clear social media guidelines, employee training, and crisis communication plans.
To maintain a positive brand image and minimize potential reputation damage, businesses need to understand how social media managers drive brand engagement and stay sharp at all times.
Did You Know! “Report finds 164% increase in cyber threats targeting brands” (ZeroFox)
Benefits of a social media risk management
Here are the key benefits of social media risk management strategies.
Safeguards brand reputation
Enhances data security
Brand growth and engagement
Mitigates legal risks
Customer trust:
Proactive crisis management
If you don’t have the right risk response strategy, then you can end up like United Airlines, where the passenger Dave Caroll’s guitar was damaged. When he took his case up to the airline, it refused to fix or replace his guitar.
In response, Dave wrote a song “United you broke my guitar”. The song got over 9 million views, and more importantly, United Airlines investors lost $180 million as the stock price dropped by 10% after the incident.
However, before moving to the risk management strategies, it’s important to know what kind of social media risks brands are open to.
Major social media risks for brands
It’s necessary for every brand, social media manager, community manager, customer services etc, to have knowledge of the risks that brands can face.
1. Social media security risks
Social security risks can harm your info and identity. Avoid sharing too much, weak passwords, or strange links. Stay safe with strong passwords, cautious sharing, and distrust of unknown emails. Just like locking your door, secure your online stuff!
Here are different kinds of social security risks for brands:
Reputation damage: Negative comments, reviews, or misinformation can harm a brand’s image.
Data breaches: Hackers gaining access to customer or employee data can lead to trust loss.
Phishing attacks: Employees might unknowingly reveal sensitive info to fake emails.
Social engineering: Scammers might manipulate employees for confidential data.
Account hijacking: Hackers taking control of a brand’s social media accounts can spread false information.
Inappropriate content: Sharing or being associated with offensive or inappropriate content.
Intellectual property theft: Competitors or others stealing a brand’s ideas or content.
Crisis mishandling: Poorly managed crises can worsen public perception.
Lack of control: Employees’ personal posts reflecting poorly on the brand.
Miscommunication: Messages being misinterpreted can lead to PR issues.
Did you know! “Up to 40% of social media users are estimated to have experienced some form of social engineering or phishing attack.” (GITNUX)
The CNN hacking case
In 2014, the official Twitter and Facebook accounts of CNN were compromised by a hacktivist group, the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA). The hackers posted false information, which spread rapidly, damaging CNN’s credibility and potentially influencing the public.
CNN’s response
CNN’s initial response was somewhat delayed and lacked coordination, allowing the false information to gain traction. However, they swiftly regained control of their accounts, deleted the false posts, and issued clarifications.
What could have been done?
To enhance crisis management, CNN could have benefited from faster response times, clear communication strategies, and pre-established protocols for social media account security. This case underscores the need for organizations to proactively prepare for digital threats and have effective crisis communication strategies in place.
2. Legal risks
Social media legal risks encompass potential legal problems arising from online activities, such as copyright infringement, defamation, and privacy violations.
Here are different kinds of social media risks brands need to be aware of:
Copyright infringement: Sharing content without proper authorization can lead to copyright claims.
Defamation: Posting false or damaging statements about individuals or businesses can result in defamation claims.
Privacy violations: Sharing personal information without consent might lead to privacy lawsuits.
Trademark violations: Unauthorized use of trademarks can result in legal action.
Advertising regulations: Violating advertising laws or not disclosing sponsorships can lead to penalties.
Data protection Laws: Mishandling customer data may breach data protection regulations.
Managing social media risks effectively is crucial to mitigate these potential financial impacts and maintain a positive brand image, customer trust, and business growth.
Here are some major financial impact on brands that occur due to weak social media risk management:
Customer loss:
Poorly managed social media risks can lead to a loss of existing customers and difficulty in attracting new ones due to negative perceptions. This is why it’s crucial to keep track of TikTok analytics and analyze interactions on Instagram, Twitter, and other platforms to prevent this from happening.
Legal expenses:
Violations such as copyright infringement or privacy breaches can result in legal fees, fines, and settlements, draining financial resources.
Crisis management costs:
Dealing with social media crises requires resources for crisis communication, PR efforts, and reputation repair, leading to additional expenses.
Difficulty in ROI measurement:
Relying on misleading social media metrics can lead to misguided decisions and ineffective strategies. Measuring the actual return on investment from social media efforts can be challenging.
The British Petroleum Gulf oil spill: A risk management debacle
The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is widely known, and social media has played a crucial role in magnifying and uniting public anger over BP’s management of the crisis in that region.
BP’s brand value has taken a hit of more than $1 billion as a consequence of the situation. Notably, the “Boycott BP” Facebook page has garnered the support of over 750,000 individuals.
Moreover, discussions surrounding “BP” have surfaced across various online platforms, including more than 9,000 blogs and over 23,000 tweets. Impressively, these discussions on Twitter have collectively generated approximately 49.5 million impressions.
4. Competitor risk
Social media risks related to competition involve potential negative impacts that arise from interactions and activities on social media platforms involving competitors. These risks can impact a business’s reputation, customer perception, and overall competitive standing.
Here are some social media risks related to competition:
Comparative marketing gone wrong:
While comparative marketing can be effective, it can backfire if not executed carefully, leading to legal issues or public backlash.
Customer poaching:
Competitors might target your customers with enticing offers or campaigns, attempting to shift their loyalty away from your brand.
Competitors might spread false rumors or disinformation about your products or services, impacting customer trust and potentially causing financial harm.
5. Innovation risk
While social media can be a powerful tool for innovation, it also comes with certain risks. Here are some innovation-related social media risks to be aware of:
Premature exposure:
Sharing innovative ideas or products too early on social media can lead to competitors gaining insight and potentially launching similar initiatives before you do.
Copycat competition:
Competitors might quickly replicate or modify your innovative concepts after seeing them on social media, reducing your competitive advantage.
Expectation management:
Overhyping an innovation on social media can lead to unrealistic customer expectations, making it challenging to meet those expectations in reality.
Critique and negative feedback:
Innovative ideas can attract critique and negative feedback on social media platforms, potentially discouraging further development or affecting your brand perception.
One of the best examples and case studies of crisis management that brands highlight is the Johnson and Johnson’s Tylenol incident.
In 1982, Johnson & Johnson faced a crisis when seven people in the United States died after consuming Tylenol capsules that had been tampered with and laced with cyanide. The company swiftly responded by recalling 31 million bottles of Tylenol, worth around $100 million. They cooperated fully with law enforcement and established a hotline to inform the public about the situation.
Johnson & Johnson also introduced tamper-evident packaging, which later became an industry standard. Their transparent and responsible crisis management approach is often cited as a model for effectively handling product-related emergencies.
Below are more details on this story and crisis management in this video of Retro Report.
Here’s a social media risk management plan tailored for brands for effective crisis management.
1. Risk identification:
Identify potential social media risks, such as reputation damage, data breaches, legal compliance issues, and crisis events.
2. Risk assessment:
Evaluate the potential impact and likelihood of each risk to prioritize them effectively.
3. Prevention and guidelines:
Establish clear social media usage guidelines for employees, including appropriate content and engagement practices.
Enforce strong password policies and enable two-factor authentication for all brand accounts.
4. Monitoring and alerts:
Utilize social media monitoring tools to track brand mentions, sentiment, and potential threats.
Set up real-time alerts for unusual activity or security breaches.
5. Data protection:
Implement stringent data protection measures, including encryption, secure data storage, and regular security audits.
6. Crisis response plan:
Develop a comprehensive crisis management plan with predefined actions for addressing negative events.
Assign specific roles and responsibilities for crisis communication and resolution.
7. Legal compliance:
Stay informed about relevant laws and regulations related to social media usage and advertising.
Ensure these tools adhere to strict security and privacy standards.
9. Incident handling:
Establish a well-defined incident response process to swiftly address social media-related incidents.
10. Communication strategy:
Develop a clear communication plan for addressing stakeholders, customers, and the public during a crisis. – Prioritize transparency and timely updates.
11. Regular audits:
Conduct regular audits of social media accounts, content, permissions, and security settings.
Wasiq Naeem is a content and digital marketing veteran who is passionate about his writing. Extensive research and producing high-quality content is just another day at the office for him.
Tired of guesswork in SEO? Embrace the science of SEO split testing!
Discover how small changes to your website’s structure, keywords, and content can have a big impact on search rankings, organic traffic, and user engagement.
Let’s supercharge your website’s organic search results with our SEO split testing guide.
What is SEO Split Testing?
SEO split testing is the process of comparing different versions of web pages to measure their impact on search engine rankings. It’s like a controlled experiment, where you have a variant page with changes and a control page. By tracking the performance of each variant, you can identify the best performing webpage and enhance your website’s visibility in search engines.
The benefits of SEO split testing
Data-driven decision-making: You can make informed decisions based on empirical evidence on the effectiveness of different variations.
Improved user experience: Testing different elements can lead to a better user experience, resulting in higher engagement and improved rankings.
Increased organic traffic: You can attract more organic traffic from search engines by optimizing your website based on test results.
Better conversion rates: Split testing helps identify the most effective strategies to drive conversions.
Adaptation to algorithm changes: It allows you to adjust your SEO strategies in response to algorithm updates.
Stakeholder buy-in: A/B Split test results provide tangible evidence of the impact of SEO efforts.
Why should I split test my SEO strategy?
Below are the benefits of split testing the SEO strategy that might convince you to invest your time in them:
1. Improve Conversion Rates:
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) and SEO are closely related concepts. By split testing your SEO campaign you can increase traffic and conversion rates. You can fine-tune your SEO strategy to enhance user experience and boost conversions by testing various iterations of landing pages and calls-to-action buttons.
2. Optimize SEO Efforts:
By using split-testing, you can compare various iterations of your SEO strategy, including :
Keyword usage
Meta tags/descriptions
On-page optimization
Content organization
This practice allows you to identify which tactic produces the best outcomes. It assists you in determining the best strategies to raise your search engine rankings and increase organic traffic.
3. Keeping up with algorithm changes:
Search engine algorithms are always changing, so what works today might not work tomorrow. Split-testing enables you to modify and polish your SEO approach to conform to algorithm updates. You can make sure your website maintains its search engine optimization and visibility in the constantly shifting environment by being proactive and conducting ongoing testing.
4. Convince stakeholders and quatify Impact:
The impact of SEO can be quantified by measuring key metrics both before and after changes by performing an SEO Split test. This data-driven strategy offers verifiable proof of the efficacy of your SEO strategy, enabling you to convince stakeholders of the value of your optimizations and make wise resource allocation choices.
5. Refine user experience:
Split-testing SEO components can help you improve your website’s overall user experience. By testing various layouts, navigation structures, page load times, and mobile responsiveness, you can find changes that make your website more user-friendly
Factors to consider before performing the SEO Split test?
These several factors must be considered before performing an SEO split test.
Clear objectives: Define clear objectives for your test. What specific aspect of your SEO strategy are you testing?
Testing scope: Determine the scope of your test. Decide whether you’ll be testing a single webpage or multiple pages.
Sample size: Strive for a sample size that provides meaningful insights without being too resource-intensive.
Test duration: Determine the appropriate duration for your test within the time frame of changing dynamics.
Statistical significance: Establish the level of statistical significance you require for your results to be reliable. This helps determine the confidence level you need to make decisions based on the test data.
Choosing the right testing tool: Use a reliable, user-friendly A/B split testing tool with a solid track record.
Consistency in testing conditions: Make sure the testing conditions, such as the user demographics, devices, browsers, and traffic sources, are constant throughout the test.
Segmentation and personalization: Depending on user characteristics, decide whether you want to segment your audience or personalize the variations.
Data collection and analysis: Establish a clear plan for data collection and analysis to derive actionable conclusions.
Documentation and reporting: Document your test process, including the variations tested, metrics measured, and results obtained. This documentation will be valuable for future reference
How do you know if an SEO test is successful?
Keyword rankings:
When it comes to evaluating your SEO results, one important aspect to consider is monitoring your keyword rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs). While rankings should not be the sole focus of your SEO campaign, they provide valuable insights into the performance and effectiveness of your targeted keywords. By regularly checking your rankings, you can track whether they are improving, declining, or remaining stagnant over time. If you find out that you are not ranking for the keywords you targeted, reevaluate whether it is worth continuing to focus on those keywords or considering alternative options.
Organic traffic:
Another way to see whether your SEO test was successful is by analyzing your website’s organic traffic. There are comprehensive tools like Content Studio that help you look for trends and changes in traffic volume, sources, and user behavior. Compare the data before and after implementing SEO strategies to identify any positive impact on organic traffic.
An increase in organic traffic serves as a strong indicator of the effectiveness of your SEO efforts. However, do keep in mind that organic traffic data is more important than overall traffic. It is because factors outside of SEO can influence overall traffic numbers. Conversely, a decrease in organic traffic suggests that your SEO tests are not working.
Backlinks:
Evaluate the quantity and quality of backlinks to your website. Backlinks from reputable and relevant sources can improve your website’s authority and search rankings. When implementing effective SEO practices, it is natural to witness an increase in backlinks. You need to assess whether the number of links and unique domains they originate from is growing, declining, or stagnant. However, quantity alone is not sufficient; the quality of backlinks also holds great importance. Low-quality backlinks can be detrimental to your website’s reputation, similar to having no links at all. Boost your business visibility in local search with professional services from Copify.
Check impressions:
Impressions refer to the number of times your website appears in search results without receiving any clicks. It serves as an initial metric to consider. This is because, when you begin optimizing for keywords, it’s unlikely that you’ll immediately land on the first page of search results.
Starting from lower pages means that even if your website appears in searches, there is a lower chance that it will be clicked. Knowing that you have begun ranking for those keywords will help you keep working toward the top of the page. You can use ‘Social Media Analytics’ by Content Studio to check your organic impressions. If it shows an increase in the number of organic impressions, your SEO tests are working if not better perform the tests again.
Bounce rate:
Another important aspect to consider when evaluating your SEO performance is analyzing the bounce rate of your website. The bounce rate refers to the percentage of visitors who leave your site after viewing only one page. By examining this metric, you can gain insights into how well your SEO tests are working. You should aim to have a lower bounce rate. This means that visitors find value in your content and are more likely to explore multiple pages on your website.
To improve your bounce rate, focus on creating high-quality content that is relevant, informative, and engaging. Ensure that your website is user-friendly, with clear navigation and intuitive design. Additionally, optimize your landing pages to align with the search intent of your target audience, delivering the information or solution they are seeking.
Conversion rates:
Tracking the number of conversions is one technique you can use to gauge the effectiveness of your SEO strategy. Start with form submissions, purchases, sign-ups, and any other desired actions on your website. A rise in conversion rates indicates that your SEO tactics are effectively attracting visitors who are genuinely interested in your offerings. It signifies that your website’s content, user experience, and overall SEO optimization are aligned with the needs and expectations of your target audience.
To calculate the conversion rate, divide the number of conversions by the total number of visitors and multiply it by 100 to get the percentage.
This metric provides a clear indication of how well your website is performing in terms of converting visitors into customers or achieving your desired goals.
A/B Split Testing using Replug
Replug is a comprehensive platform for tracking and URL shortening. It provides many features to help you manage links and improve your marketing. Users can track link performance, shorten and customize URLs, and enhance the user experience.
It allows split A/B testing of various URL variations. By doing this you can determine their effect on click-through rates and overall performance.
Follow the steps given below using Replug and perform A/B split tests.
Once logged in, navigate to the Replug Links page.
Locate and click on the New Link button to initiate the process of creating a new link. Follow the subsequent steps provided to complete the link creation procedure.
Step 2
Before saving the link, activate the A/B Split testing feature by switching on the toggle button. This action will automatically set your destination URL as the initial A/B Testing Link with a weightage of 100%.
To include additional URLs for testing, simply click on the “Add Destination Link” button.
Step 3
You have the flexibility to assign different weights to each URL, as long as the total weightage adds up to 100%.
To simplify the process, you can utilize the “Equalize Weights” button, which automatically distributes the weightage equally among the URLs.
This allows for easy adjustment and optimization of the weight distribution for your A/B testing purposes.
Step 4
After enabling the A/B Testing feature, you are ready to save your branded link. Start engaging your audience by sharing your Replug Link
Now analyze link performance and keep using the best performing one.
Note: It’s important to note that the weightage assigned to each URL is not influenced by previous visits and does not have strict constraints.Whenever the short link is accessed, the final destination URL is selected based on the defined weightage, ensuring a dynamic and varied user experience. However, it’s worth mentioning that if your campaign type is CTA (Call-to-Action) and the specified link does not support iframe functionality, the link cannot be saved for A/B Testing. This limitation is due to the requirement of displaying web page content within another website using iframe. If the source website does not permit iframe inclusion, Replug displays a warning when creating CTA Campaigns.
FAQs
Does A/B Testing hurt SEO?
A/B testing itself does not hurt SEO. It can be a valuable strategy to optimize your website for better search engine rankings. When running A/B tests, it’s important to ensure that the changes you make align with SEO best practices and guidelines provided by search engines. By running tests you can improve your search engine ranking in Google search results.
Most common mistakes to avoid while running SEO split tests
No clear goals/ objectives
Simultaneous testing of multiple variations
Not collecting and analyzing enough data to draw statistically significant conclusions.
Not giving the test enough time to run and produce valid data.
Not documenting and tracking the modifications that were made and their impact on SEO performance.
Ignoring additional outside elements that could affect the test results.
What SEO elements can I test using split testing?
You can test various SEO elements to improve your website’s performance. Some elements you can consider testing include:
Page titles
Meta descriptions
Keyword usage and optimization
Headings and subheadings (H1, H2, etc.)
Content length and formatting
Navigation and site architecture
Calls-to-action
Linking strategies
Image optimization
Mobile responsiveness
URL structure
Site speed
What’s the difference between conducting a split test and an A/B test?
A split test and an A/B test are two different terms used to refer to the same type of experiment. However, the term “split test” is a broader term that encompasses any test where different versions are compared including A/B tests. In other words, it refers to dividing the traffic between multiple variations to measure their impact on key metrics. Whereas an A/B test specifically refers to comparing two versions: a control version (A) and a variant version (B).
Wasiq Naeem is a content and digital marketing veteran who is passionate about his writing. Extensive research and producing high-quality content is just another day at the office for him.
Are long web addresses a pain? Say goodbye to awkward long URLs and hello to short links!
This guide will walk you through the process of creating short URLs step-by-step.
Also, discover the benefits of short links, from improving user experience to boosting your online presence.
What is a short URL link?
A short URL, also known as a shortened URL or a tiny URL, is a compact version of a regular web address (URL). It is created by using a URL shortener tool, which takes a long URL and generates a shorter, more concise version.
Step 2: On the main dashboard click “Select your campaign” to give your short URL campaign a name. You can create a new campaign name in just a few seconds.
Step 3: Enter the long original URL in the “URL to Shorten” section just below “Select your campaign” and hit the “Create” button.
Step 4: Replug usually allows you to customize the shortened URL. You can choose a unique identifier or keyword to make the link more memorable or reflective of your content.
Step 5: Once the short URL is customized, copy and share this link on social media, emails, websites, or any other platform where you want to direct users to the original content.
Step 6: Once done just hit the “Update” button.
Branded Short Links
Create and track branded short links for your business for better conversions.
Replug offers link tracking and analytics features. You can access the dashboard to monitor the performance of your short URLs, including the number of clicks, geographic locations of the users, and more.
Step 7: Go to the main dashboard and click “Replug links” under “Manage” to check your link’s analytics.
Step 8: Here you’ll find all your shortened links. Click on the “3 dots” under the actions tab, then select “view stats” for detailed link analytics.
Why manage your links with Replug?
Managing your links with Replug offers several valuable benefits that can enhance your digital marketing efforts and online presence:
Link Shortening and Customization: Replug allows you to create short and memorable links for your long URLs, making it easier to share them on social media, emails, and other platforms with character limitations. You can also customize the short URLs to reflect your brand or content, increasing brand recognition.
Link Tracking and Analytics: With Replug, you can track the performance of your shortened links. It provides valuable insights into how many clicks your links receive, which geographic locations your audience is coming from, and other relevant data. This information enables you to measure the success of your marketing campaigns and make data-driven decisions.
Call-to-Action (CTA) Overlays: Replug allows you to add call-to-action overlays to the content you share. This feature enables you to engage your audience further, directing them to take specific actions, such as subscribing to a newsletter or downloading a resource.
Link Rotating and Redirects: Replug offers link rotating and redirect capabilities. You can use these features to distribute traffic evenly among multiple destination URLs or switch the destination URL without having to change the shortened link.
Social Media Retargeting: With Replug’s social media retargeting feature, you can add a retargeting pixel to your shortened links. This enables you to build custom audiences on social media platforms for remarketing purposes.
Link Management and Organization: Replug provides a centralized dashboard to manage all your shortened links and campaigns effectively. You can organize your links into different campaigns, making it easier to track their performance and manage multiple marketing initiatives.
UTM Parameter Support: Replug supports UTM parameters, allowing you to add campaign tracking information to your links. This helps you better understand the sources of your traffic and the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
Branded Short Domains: Replug allows you to use your custom branded domain for link shortening. This adds a professional touch to your shortened links and reinforces your brand identity.
Bio-Link Feature: Replug’s Bio Link feature enables you to create a customizable landing page that houses multiple links in one place. This landing page serves as a hub for your various social media profiles, websites, and other online destinations. Instead of sharing multiple links individually, you can direct your audience to your Bio-Link, where they can find all your important links conveniently in one location.
Link Management Made Easy
Your go to link management tool for CTAs, branded and bio links, QR Codes, tracking and retargeting.
Arslan is a SaaS content marketer who crafts clear, engaging content that drives results. He simplifies complex ideas into easily understandable blog posts, landing pages, and emails, helping SaaS companies connect with their audience and grow.
Crafting friendly URLs holds utmost importance, as they significantly impact a website’s search engine ranking and overall user experience.
Whether you are a seasoned developer or a beginner, this guide will equip you with the knowledge and best practices to master the art of creating effective and user-friendly URL slugs.
URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator, which is a web address used to identify and locate resources on the internet. It consists of several components, including the protocol (e.g., “http” or “https”), the domain name (e.g., “example.com” or “example.io”), and the slug (e.g., “keyword”) that identifies a specific resource on the website.
The portion of a URL that follows the domain name and any subdirectories is known as the URL slug. It is a human-readable and user-friendly text used to designate a particular web page. Keywords associated with the page’s content are frequently used in URL slugs, which makes them more descriptive and simple to remember.
URL slugs are vital for SEO. They provide a concise, descriptive, and user-friendly representation of a webpage’s content. This helps search engines and visitors easily understand your pages.
Moreover, including relevant keywords in the slug enhances search engine visibility and improves the user experience by allowing visitors to understand what the page is about before clicking. Well-crafted slugs also contribute to better indexing, readability, and shareability. This further increases the likelihood of attracting organic traffic and earning valuable backlinks from other websites.
Tips for writing SEO-friendly URL slugs
People often think URL slugs are a minor SEO element, but that’s not true. URL Slugs can significantly impact your website’s performance in search engine rankings and user engagement. Creating SEO-friendly URL slugs involves careful consideration of keywords, readability, and user experience. Below are some key actionable tips to help you optimize your URL slugs effectively.
1. Include your keyword in the URL slug
The very first item that comes to mind when discussing SEO is the keyword. In addition to the content, you must include your primary keyword in your URL slugs as well. Slugs are used by search engines to understand the context of your page content. As far as users are concerned, looking at the URL makes it easier for them to identify relevant content.
For example, if your focus keyword is ‘AI Tools for Social Media’, you need to incorporate these keywords in your URL slug, just like ConetntStudio did.
2. Keep them short yet informative
Try to keep your URL slugs short and informative if you want to make them appealing to both users and search engines. Imagine you run a website dedicated to a content curation tool. Instead of having lengthy URL slugs like:
This shorter version conveys the essence of the page’s content while being more user and SEO-friendly.
All that you need to keep in mind is that users are more likely to click on links with concise and relevant URLs, as they can quickly grasp the page’s content before visiting it. Moreover, shareability improves when URLs are shorter, making it easier for people to share your content on other platforms.
3. Use hyphens, not underscores, to separate words
Prioritize the use of hyphens instead of underscores. Hyphens serve as clear word separators that enhance the visual appeal and readability of your URLs. Search engines recognize hyphens as natural dividers between words. This enables them to interpret the content more accurately.
Visibly, the first version presents a tidy and simple URL that users and search engines can process without difficulty. The second version with underscores, on the other hand, seems cluttered and less user-friendly.
4. Make them lowercase
To ensure consistency and avoid problems with duplicate content, always use lowercase letters. Instead of something like “What-Are-Ctas-In-Marketing,” “what-are-ctas-in-marketing” is preferred. URLs are handled case-sensitively by search engines.
This means that “what-are-ctas-in-marketing” and “What-Are-Ctas-In-Marketing” are treated as two separate URLs. This might result in issues with duplicate content and weaken your website’s SEO efforts. Moreover, mixed-case URLs can make it more difficult for users to remember or share them correctly.
5. Keep it evergreen
Use content that will remain relevant and valuable over time when creating URL slugs. More precisely, avoid incorporating time-sensitive details such as specific years or dates in your URL slugs.
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Evergreen slugs help improve SEO results because search engines value content that holds its value over an extended period. You can prevent potential broken links and maintain the SEO authority that has developed over time by getting rid of time-sensitive elements from your slugs. This eliminates the need to update URLs with each passing year.
6. Use 1 domain and 1 subdomain
Maintain a clean URL structure by sticking to one primary domain and a minimal number of subdomains. This approach consolidates your website’s authority and prevents content fragmentation. Opt for “blog.example.com” instead of “example.com/blog.”
Moreover, a consolidated URL structure simplifies your website’s maintenance and improves link equity distribution. You avoid the risk of diluting SEO authority across multiple subdomains, ensuring that your primary domain gains maximum value from incoming links.
Source: SEO Sherpa
You can use subfolders instead of subdomains. Subfolders within the main domain consolidate link equity, making the website more authoritative and easier to rank. Many case studies have shown significant traffic increases when moving content from subdomains to subfolders.
Source: Andy Chadwick’s Twitter account (X) Tweet
Source: Stephen Kenw Chadwick’s Twitter account (X) tweet
7. Update old slugs but be careful
Always make sure the right redirects are set up when changing a slug to prevent broken links and maintain the SEO authority from the previous URL.
Because sudden changes can result in broken links and have a negative effect on user experience and search engine rankings, managing URL changes requires careful planning. You can smoothly direct users and search engines to the new URL while transferring the SEO value accrued by the old slug by implementing 301 redirects.
Your website will continue to be user-friendly and search engine optimized if outdated slugs are strategically updated. Furthermore, it aids in maintaining backlinks and search engine rankings while ensuring a steady flow of organic traffic to your updated content.
To further emphasize the relevance of your content, you must ensure that your URL slugs and page headlines are consistent. Both users and search engines will have an easier time understanding the purpose of your page if you align both elements.
This practice assists search engines in associating your content’s main topic with the URL, potentially improving your website’s ranking for relevant search queries. Additionally, users are more likely to click on links that display a clear correlation between the headline and URL, enhancing their browsing experience.
9. Use fewer page categories
Keep your URL slug structure simple by keeping the number of categories to a minimum and avoid keyword stuffing. Slugs that are clear and uncomplicated make it simpler for users to navigate your website and for search engines to comprehend your content.
Let’s take a look at a social media analytics tool web page. Rather than using a long and confusing URL, they chose a short and descriptive URL slug:
This direct method keeps things crystal clear.
10. Opt for HTTP protocol
Secure your website using HTTPS instead of HTTP because search engines prefer secure sites. HTTPS encrypts data exchanged between users and your website. In other words, it allows you to protect sensitive information from potential online threats.
This added layer of security instills confidence in your visitors and encourages them to engage with your content or even make transactions without fear of data breaches. It’s the padlock icon in their browser’s address bar that makes them believe that their connection is secure. This builds their trust in your brand, leading to increased user engagement, longer browsing sessions, and conversions.
Find a memorable domain name and pair it with a relevant URL slug. By doing this, you can enhance your band’s recognition and reinforce your website’s theme.
The combination in the picture above exemplifies how a cohesive URL structure can align with your brand’s identity.
When users encounter a radio domain name that resonates with their interests, such as “contentstudio.io,” they are more likely to remember and revisit your website. This instant recall plays a significant role in building a loyal audience base.
Adding a relevant URL slug like “/content-marketing” further enhances user engagement. It communicates the content focus, guiding visitors to the specific section they are interested in. This targeted approach saves users time and effort, fostering a positive user experience.
6 Major mistakes to avoid while creating URL Slugs
As discussed before, URL slugs play an important role in enhancing your website’s SEO and user experience. However, there are common mistakes that can impact your website’s performance and rankings. Below are six major mistakes that you need to avoid when crafting URL slugs for your web pages.
1. Avoid stop words
Common words like “and,” “the,” “of,” “a”, etc. are stop words and they add very little to the meaning of a URL. Avoid using them in your slugs because doing so will lengthen them and make them less readable. For example:
The use of specific dates in URL slugs can result in out-of-date content and affect SEO. Rather than
“/product-launch-2023,”
use
“/latest-product-launch”
or
“/new-product-release.”
In this manner, you can avoid updating your URLs annually and ensure their continued relevance.
The biggest issue is that when you need to change the date from 2023 to 2024, you need to change the slug and redirect the old URL to the new one. This process can be time-consuming and may lead to broken links if not handled correctly.
Moreover, these URL redirects can be suboptimal. They may result in less link juice passing through to the destination URLs. This means that the SEO value of your old URL might not fully transfer to the new one. By leaving out numbers and using descriptive slugs, you avoid the need for frequent redirects and maintain a consistent flow of link equity to your content.
3. Avoid using special characters
Including special characters like question marks, exclamation marks, or dollar signs can cause issues with URL encoding in your slugs. Certain characters are replaced with encoded strings, making the URL less readable. Furthermore, some special characters may not be universally supported by all browsers and platforms, potentially causing compatibility issues for some users.
You can use hyphens to separate words in your slugs. Hyphens are considered word separators, providing better readability for search engines and users alike. Hyphen-separated slugs contribute to a cleaner and more professional appearance for your URLs.
4. Avoid trailing slash issues
Adding a trailing slash at the end of a URL can inadvertently create duplicate content problems for your website. Confusion and a negative effect on SEO may result from search engines treating URLs with and without the trailing slash as separate pages. Maintaining consistency in your URL structure is essential for mitigating this problem.
You can guarantee that users and search engines always access the preferred version of your content by consistently using one format for your URLs and implementing the appropriate redirects.
Making changes to your URL structure or slugs is a common practice, but it’s critical to handle these changes carefully to avoid broken links and maintain a consistent user experience. Setting up 301 redirects from the old URLs to the new ones is essential when changing a URL.
Users who are trying to access your content may become frustrated if you neglect to implement proper redirects. Broken links not only have a bad effect on the user experience, but they also give the wrong impression to search engines, which could lower the ranking of your website.
6. Avoid ranking cannibalization
Ranking cannibalization is a phenomenon where multiple pages on your website vie for the same keyword. As a result, there is internal competition in the search results. Concentrate on making sure that each URL slug targets a different and specific keyword or topic to prevent ranking cannibalization. Conduct keyword research and use different variations for each page.
You can improve each page’s content’s clarity and relevance in the eyes of search engines by allocating unique URL slugs to particular keywords or topics. This enables search algorithms to better understand the purpose and intent of your pages, leading to improved rankings for relevant search queries.
How to optimize URL slugs?
Your links will be easier to read, remember, and navigate with a well-optimized URL slug, which will increase click-through rates and engagement. This section will examine URL slug optimization using a practical example and the Replug Shortener campaign.
You’ll land on a dashboard. Create your brand here by clicking on the ‘New Brand’ button.
Step 3
Click on ‘Manage’ and select ‘Campaigns’ from the drop-down menu and fill in details to create your campaign.
Step 4
Once you’re done creating your campaign, select ‘Replug Links’ from the drop-down menu to optimize your long URL slug.
Step 5
Copy or edit the new link to your preference, select Update, and you’re done in steps 1 through 5.
How to change your slug in WordPress?
WordPress is known for its user-friendly interface and flexibility, making it a popular choice for website development. Changing a URL slug in WordPress is a simple process that can be done within the platform’s settings by following the steps below.
Step 1
Before starting you must ensure that your permalink structure allows for user-friendly URL slugs. Navigate to “Settings” and then to “Permalinks.”
You can choose one of the standard permalink structure types or create your own. However, it is recommended to use the”Post name” structure.
Step 2
Open the editor of the post or webpage and look for the “URL” section in the rightmost panel. Click on the automatically generated slug and edit it the way you want to. That’s it.
The strengthening of your website’s search engine optimization is one of the main advantages of using SEO-friendly URL slugs. Search engines can learn a lot about the content of your page when you use relevant keywords in the URL slugs of your URLs. The ability of the search engine to index and rank your pages for pertinent search queries is subsequently improved.
2. Increase shareability
Concise, descriptive, and simple-to-remember URL slugs are more likely to be shared on various platforms. Users are more likely to share valuable content with their friends, coworkers, or social media networks when the URLs are simple and clear.
When the reader comes across your URL, which is to the point (has the focus keyword), they can easily copy and paste the URL. The user-friendly and shareable URL slug allows others to access the same content quickly and effortlessly.
3. Enhance click-through rates
An SEO-optimized URL slug can also improve click-through rates (CTR) from search engine results pages (SERPs). When users see a relevant and well-structured URL slug that matches their search intent, they are more likely to click on the link, expecting it to lead to content that aligns with their needs. The user-friendly and keyword-rich URL slug assures the user that the page contains the desired information, thus increasing the likelihood of a click.
Let’s say someone is searching for “best smartphone deals”. He’ll click on a URL with a slug like “/best-smartphone-deals” rather than a generic one like “/products/abc123.”
Concluding remarks
URL slugs play a pivotal role in the world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). These user-friendly, descriptive segments of URLs not only enhance the overall user experience but also significantly impact a website’s search engine ranking and visibility.
Optimize URL slugs with relevant keywords, using hyphens as separators, and keep them concise. In this way, you can signal search engines about your content’s focus and improve your chances of ranking higher in search results.
FAQs on URL Slugs
Why is it called a URL slug?
It’s called a URL slug due to its historical resemblance to the slimy, segmented part of a slug, reflecting its compact and descriptive nature in a URL.
What is permalink vs slug?
A permalink is the full URL of a webpage, while a slug is the portion of the permalink that represents the page’s content.
What is the URL slug parameter?
The URL slug parameter is the user-friendly, human-readable portion of a URL that identifies a specific page’s content.
Wasiq Naeem is a content and digital marketing veteran who is passionate about his writing. Extensive research and producing high-quality content is just another day at the office for him.
Digital marketers, SEOs, and affiliate bloggers play around with links all the time. Sometimes, these experts use short URLs, masked URLs, or redirect URLs. Different link management strategies are used to achieve desired results.
If you’re into affiliate marketing, you must have come across link cloaking. It’s also known as URL masking.
If you’re curious about URL masking or why it’s important to understand or who should be using this link management technique, then stick around.
What Does it Mean to Mask a URL?
URL masking is a process of altering the appearance of the URL without changing the destination URL. When a URL is masked, it may appear different on the outside, but it takes the visitor to the pre-defined destination.
URL redirection has an important role in the URL masking process. The redirection helps website owners and bloggers to allow URL masking to work. I’ll shed some light on the URL redirects in a second.
There are several other use cases of URL masking that you’ll witness going forward.
One of the reasons why marketers and SEOs mask URLs is to beautify the look of the URLs, especially if they want to promote content on social media or email newsletters.
Most bloggers and affiliate marketers cloak affiliate links to hide the hideous affiliate links and mask them with their short, beautiful links to increase CTR and engagement.
What are URL Redirects?
URL redirects are traffic forwarding parameters to direct the visitors and bots toward the destination URL. The purpose of setting up redirects is to push the visitors or bots in the right direction.
Sometimes, a company rebrands itself into a new name and pushes the website traffic toward the new domain. This is where the URL redirection comes in handy.
Moreover, a permanent redirect is also used to tell the search engine bots that a page or website has moved to a new URL.
URL redirection is extremely helpful in blogging, affiliate marketing, and SEO. Therefore, it’s vital to understand how it works and the difference between different types of redirects.
Now you know how URL masking works and why it’s important. So let’s discuss when to apply URL masking.
Here are different scenarios where URL masking would be helpful:
Inserting affiliate links: Most affiliate experts mask URLs when they have to promote affiliate products on their blogs. They use a URL masker so that their affiliate links look more natural and non-spammy.
Dealing with long URLs: We’ve established the fact that long and clunky URLs don’t appeal to website visitors due to their spammy and sketchy appearance. Therefore, marketers and bloggers mask such URLs when they have to deal with long product URLs or affiliate offer links.
Hiding free web hosting URLs: A lot of beginners prefer free web hosting and free sub-domains for launching their websites or blogs. However, most of them try to hide those free sub-domains through link shortening or URL masking. For instance, blogger.com and wordpress.com provide free sub-domain and web hosting for setting up free blogs.
Increasing tracking parameters: Whenever a brand wants to keep track of its links’ performance, they have to add certain tracking parameters to the URLs in question. Therefore, it’s necessary for them to insert additional tracking parameters using a URL tracker to make it happen.
These were some of the situations where users might want to consider masking the URLs so that they could benefit from this link management strategy.
Advantages of URL Masking
Here are some perks of using a URL masking tool:
i. Security
A lot of companies try to hide their sensitive information or deny the accessibility to sensitive files to maintain security. Data theft, malware transfers, and code injections are a few of the challenges websites, blogs, and e-commerce sites have to be aware of to survive.
So this is why it’s important to understand and implement URL masking when or where it’s inevitable.
They say the first impression is the last impression. You might not want website visitors to feel overwhelmed when looking at your links. URL masking may help improve your links’ appearance to some degree.
Social media influencers, bloggers, and affiliate marketers strive to position themselves as genuine, authentic, and real.
However, when they come across awkward, untrustworthy links to publish on their sites or social media, they fashion something to make those links look better.
URL masking helps marketers and brands create short, user-friendly links that don’t look sketchy at all. And that’s a huge advantage of link cloaking.
As a result, most influencers and creators with massive followers base use short links to promote the products or sell their own products.
iii. Hide unnecessarily long destination URL
One of the benefits of using any URL masker is to hide long destination URLs. These long URLs might not necessarily be affiliate links or e-commerce product links. Sometimes, website pages or blog posts have relatively longer URLs that don’t look very nice.
Have you ever come across a social post that has a long URL as a call-to-action?
I’m sure we have all seen something like that on social media or SMS. The point is that nobody would ever click on such a link.
Brands, marketers, and affiliate bloggers need short and trackable URLs. The reason is that these experts know that readers despise long links in the article or social media posts etc.
URL masking provides these professional marketers and bloggers with a shield to get away with this.
This way, brands, websites, and bloggers can get more engagement and clickability on their websites. Here’s an example of Coca Cola’s URL branding example.
iv. Adds the ability to track link performance
It’s impossible to grow an online business or blog without a proper website tracking and reporting system. One of the benefits of URL masking is that it allows users to track the clickability of the shortened links. Thus, it helps in determining the conversion rate of a website or blog.
Website tracking assists website owners to analyze content performance, user engagement, and conversion rate. Links are added to the content or social posts so that readers click them while going through the content.
It’ll be a shame if clicks are happening, but there is no click tracking in place to analyze the links’ performance.
It’s safe to say that link performance tracking is crucial to establishing a successful link management strategy whether you’re managing social media channels or running an email marketing campaign.
URL masking does help marketers and affiliate bloggers to track link performance across different platforms.
v. Improves click-through rate on affiliate links
An affiliate marketing campaign has numerous aspects that make conversion happen. The affiliate offers on a blog don’t convert just because they have been added.
In fact, the conversion happens because readers need the solution or they trust the author or the recommendation makes sense.
URL masking does have a huge impact on the click-through rate of any brand or website. You must have known by now that readers find it hard to click on an untrustworthy link.
While some readers chicken out when they aren’t sure about the link they’re supposed to click, others leave it to decide later.
I have personally been using link-cloaking tools to hide the affiliate offers on my blogs because I don’t to showcase my unpretty links.
On the flip side, adding short URLs to your blogging system dramatically improves the click-through rate on your website.
vi. Branding
Branding isn’t just about the name, logo, and colors – it’s a wholesome package that shapes how a brand is perceived by the audience. Links are an essential part of the branding composition. Pay close attention to your links from the branding perspective. No wonder a lot of brands use short custom domains for URL shortening.
URL masking & URL branding is quite common in digital marketing and affiliate marketing areas. Publishers, bloggers, and affiliate marketers try to mask affiliate or lengthy URLs to make the user experience as smooth as possible.
Perhaps, long and bulky URLs scare readers off. Therefore, it’s necessary to make your links look beautiful and catchy with your branded keywords.
Link Management Made Easy
Your go to link management tool for CTAs, branded and bio links, QR Codes, tracking and retargeting.
You don’t have to be a website developer need to create a masked URL. In fact, it’s not that difficult, considering you have access to the right tools for the job.
Speaking of the tools, I’ll be sharing how you can do URL masking using a URL shortener. Let me tell you a little bit about this URL shortener.
It is an all-in-one URL shortening tool that provides digital marketers, affiliate bloggers, and social media experts with a bunch of link management tools.
The key features of Replug include social media bio links, branded short links, URLs shortener, retargeting visitors, mobile deep links, QR marketing, UTM parameters, and more.
Create a masked URL using Replug URL Shortener:
Note: Skip to step 3 as integrating a custom domain is not mandatory to create a customized URL slug. Unless you want to use your brand name in your domain with your slug, then follow the given steps.
Step #1: Register your short domain
First things first, register a short domain that is suitable for your brand. A lot of companies and experts pick the short version of their brand name to register for setting up their short domain.
For instance, youtube.com has youtu.be, Amazon has amzn.to, and Replug has rplg.co. So these are a few examples of short domain names that companies have registered for different purposes.
To register your short domain, go to your favorite domain registrar services like Namecheap or Godaddy and look out for a perfect, short domain name.
Once you’ve registered the domain name, move on to step number two.
Step #2: Integrate your custom domain with Replug
After registering the short domain name, there are some integrations that need to be done before you could start using your branded short URL.
This integration is a two-step process to make it work. Start with adding the DNS records for your custom domain to configure it with Replug.
To do this, log in to your domain registrar account and look out for the DNS settings. You’ll see an option like “Add New Record” or “Add Record,” depending on the domain registrar you’re using.
The idea is to add a CNAME record in your domain setting to configure it with your Replug account.
So click on the “Add New Record” option to include a new record. Provide the following details:
Record type
Hostname
Point to (Address)
CNAME
@ or www
*short domain*
Most domain registrars allow adding a CNAME record. However, if your domain registrar doesn’t allow it, you can use the A -Address option instead.
Record type
Hostname
Point to (Address)
A
@ or www
*Domain IP address*
Once you’re done on the domain registrar front, head over to the Replug account.
Now it’s time to add a custom domain to your Replug account.
Log in to your Replug account and open the drop-down settings menu from the top right corner.
Head over to the dashboard to start shortening the URLs using your short, branded domain.
FAQs About URL Masking
Here are some burning questions about URL masking:
Is there a way to mask a URL?
Sure, there is more than one way to mask a URL. The most common method for bloggers and affiliate marketers to mask links is by using plugins.
Moreover, you could also use link cloaking to mask a URL. It essentially changes the appearance of the URL to make it look decent, but the destination URL remains the same. It requires URL redirection to direct the visitors to the destination page.
What is the difference between URL masking and redirecting?
The URL redirection pushes the visitors to a different page or a new website with clear directions for search engine bots to follow. However, URL masking is more of a URL-hiding strategy to avoid unnecessary suspicion on the user’s end.
What is the difference between URI and URL?
The URI is an abbreviation for Uniform Resource Identifier. It’s a series of characters employed to specify and differentiate a logical or physical resource, commonly associated with the internet, from other resources.
Whereas, a URL is short for Uniform Resource Locator. It’s a distinctive identifier employed to pinpoint the location of a resource on the Internet. It’s also known as a web address.
Hassaan Khan is a freelance writer for SAAS companies, e-commerce stores, and niche websites. He has contributed to SEMrush, ThriveGlobal, BloggingCage, AllBloggingTips, and several other publications.
He builds niche websites, publishes e-books, and helps website investors with his done-for-you niche site-building service.
Digital marketing is changing at a fast pace. Most marketers try to keep up with the innovation and adapt accordingly. However, some of them miss out on a number of things. One of those essentials is URL tracking. If it doesn’t ring a bell, then you probably need to listen to me right now. Otherwise, some competitors who’re tracking their links might have a competitive advantage over you. Since you haven’t had a chance to learn about the basics of link tracking, I’ll start from scratch and tell you everything you need to know.
What’s a link tracker?
Link tracking software is a tracking tool that tracks user activity by tracking clicks and conversions on the links. Further, providing users with an in-depth report on the clicks’ origin, CTR, traffic source, and other metrics.
Why is it necessary to use a link tracker?
A link tracker is used to analyze the performance of your URLs. It is an essential tool for brand marketeers that are constantly involved in sharing links on social media.
With the link analytics data, you can analyze performance on the base of clicks, conversions, demographics, etc.
One of the other benefits of link tracking is that marketers, bloggers, and webpreneurs get the idea of how their content or marketing campaigns are performing. They can also analyze which campaign is outsmarting the other ones.
URL tracking comes in handy in email marketing, social media marketing, affiliate link cloaking for product promotion, social media advertising, and website visitor tracking.
I hope it clarifies these queries. Now let’s head over to some tips about choosing the best link-tracking tool.
How to pick the best link tracking software?
Here are the features/options you should look out for when picking a link-tracking software for your business:
1. Data tracking features
If there is no clickability datain a link tracker, then there is no point in using it. The fundamental reason to use a link tracker is to analyze the clicks they’re getting on their links.
Conversion analysis is yet another important feature for link tracking. The URL tracking campaign goes to the next level if the reporting tool could analyze the action being taken after the clicks and record the conversion. This feature might only be able in top-notch link management tools.
Real-time reporting refers to reporting actions as they happen without any delay. Most link-tracking softwares have a delayed reporting system. However, real-time reporting is a huge plus in link tracking tools.
Traffic source is another key feature to analyze where your traffic is coming from. Some tools have in-depth analytics that track and report what kind of operating system, devices, location of users clicking on your links.
2. Integration capabilities
One of the best features to look out for in link trackers is whether or not it integrates with the industry’s other digital marketing and SAAS tools. It’ll be a bummer if a link tracker fails to connect with other marketing tools.
3. Simple user interface & easy campaign management
Make the users feel at home with a simple user interface. Users who cannot find the options on their dashboard screen tend to get bored of it and look for an alternative. So remember that a friendly-user interface is a big deal.
Campaign management is a feature that allows users to create and manage URL tracking within the campaigns. It immensely helps marketers to manage and track URL campaigns for different brands. Replug, the fastest-rising link management tool, has a campaign feature that makes it easier for users to manage different campaigns by creating short URLs.
4. Affordable pricing
One can’t choose an online marketing tool without seeing the monthly or annual price. A lot of users choose an alternative tool just because of a high price of an online tool.
5. Reputation
Buyers often check out the reviews of existing users. Plus, they check social media for the product/brand reputation before they put out their credit card information. So, always take a look at the reviews of users before making your final choice.
6. A/B testing facility
A/B testing is the feature that helps users compare two versions of the same thing to see which one outperforms the other. The best link trackers have this feature, allowing users to split-test two or more links to see which one performs better.
7 best link trackers
We have compiled this list after great research so that you don’t have to spend time researching and you can get on with the list to try what suits your individual or business needs.
1. Replug
Replug- URL Shortener Video
A complete link tracker and link manager that comes with enhanced capabilities. The primary functions of the tool are URL-shortening and link tracking, providing several handy solutions for marketers. It’s a powerful link management solution for brands and marketers to create, manage, and track short URLs.
Apart from click & conversion tracking, elevate your social media marketing ad campaigns with Replug. The link management tool allows you to add pixel codes of your favorite social platforms to Replug. Then run your retargeting campaigns and build custom audiences when anyone clicks on your shortened retargeting link.
Furthermore, Replug integrates with several email marketing services, lead generation tools, and retargeting platforms flawlessly. All in all, it’s an excellent platform to set up your link-tracking campaign.
Top Features:
⦁ It’s an easy-to-use link management tool ⦁ Users can connect their custom domains ⦁ It provides branded short URL facility ⦁ Every shortened URL can be tracked ⦁ A/B testing helps split test two versions of the URL ⦁ Add UTM codes to the URLs to track visitors sources and other details ⦁ Create short bio links for social media platforms ⦁ Convert offline audience into website traffic through QR codes ⦁ Retarget the audience that clicks on your short links through social media ads ⦁ Deep links allow users to seamlessly navigate to in-app sections without logging in
Free Trial: Start your 14-day free trial account – no credit card required.
Plans
Price
Features
Basic plan
$19 per month
10000 clicks and unlimited links
Professional plan
$49 per month
50,000 tracked clicks, unlimited campaigns & retargeting links, 25 bio links and more.
Agency plan
$79 per month
200000 unlimited campaigns, links and advanced features
Note: Pricing may vary. You can always verify the pricing plans by going to the pricing pages.
2. Short.io
Short.io is a popular URL shortening tool that offers a number of link management services. It lets marketers and brands create personalized, short branded URLs without any hassle. Furthermore, it integrates with several marketing tools such as Zapier, Slack, Google Tag Manager, Adroll, and others.
Top features of Short.io:
⦁ It lets you track clicks in real-time ⦁ Users can add custom domains for branded short URLs ⦁ Campaign tracking is available for all users ⦁ Apps developers and brands can create deep links ⦁ It provides API access for developers
Free Trial: Every paid plan has a 7-day free trial
Plans
Price
Features
Basic plan
$19 per month
50,000 tracked clicks and limited features
Professional plan
$49 per month
50 custom domains, unlimited tracked clicks and branded links.
Agency plan
$149 per month
advanced features, unlimited custom domains, tracked clicks and branded links etc.
3. Bitly
Bitly is one of the most popular URL shorteners on the market. It started as a URL shortener but transformed into a full-fledged link management tool. It has mobile apps for Android and iOS users to manage their links on the go. Plus, it integrates with several SAAS and digital marketing tools. Moreover, it has Chrome, Edge, and Firefox browser extensions for users.
Bitly Short Video
Top features of Bitly
⦁ Bitly allows users to add custom domains for customized branded short URLs ⦁ It shortens the long and clunky URLs with ease ⦁ It lets users create QR codes for links ⦁ Link tracking and reporting make it easier to analyze the links’ performance ⦁ Users can create link-in-bio short links for social media platforms
Free Trial: Bitly has a free plan that allows 10 Bitly short links per month
Plans
Price
Features
Starter plan
$8 per month
200 branded links and limited QR code customizations and scan data
Basic plan
$29 per month
1500 branded links, advanced QR code customizations, complimentary custom domain and more
Premium plan
$199 per month
3000 branded links and advanced features such as region base click and conversion statistics.
4. Rebrandly
Rebrandly is one of the reputable names in the URL shortening and link management genre. Its high-quality service, diversified features, and affordable pricing make it a good choice for marketers. It covers all the bases when it comes to link tracking for brands and marketers. Moreover, it integrates with over 100 tools, SAAS products, and software.
Top features of Rebrandly:
⦁ Workspaces option allows marketers to share ULRs with teammates ⦁ Easily connect multiple custom domains to your Rebrandly account ⦁ Access customized analytics for short links through custom reports ⦁ Deep linking and traffic routing could help a brand smoothly navigate and test their audience ⦁ Retargeting allows brands to remarket the people who have clicked on the short URLs ⦁ Talk to the dedicated account manager for help or advice
Free Trial: Start a free trial that provides 25 branded short links per month
Plans
Price
Features
Lite plan
$13 per month
250 branded links and 1 custom domain
Essential plan
$32 per month
1500 branded links, 3 custom domains, 404 redirects, nded links, advanced QR code customizations, complimentary custom domain and more
Enterprise plan
$625 per month
20000+ branded links, 20+ custom domains and several advanced features, such as broken link management, deep linking, SSL, etc.
5. Red Track
RedTrack is a link-tracking software and affiliate marketing platform. It is designed to help businesses and marketers track the performance and effectiveness of their marketing campaigns, especially those involving affiliate marketing.
With RedTrack, users can create unique tracking links that they can use in their various marketing channels, such as social media, email campaigns, websites, and advertisements. These tracking links allow them to monitor the number of clicks, conversions, and other essential metrics to evaluate the success of their campaigns.
The platform provides in-depth analytics and reporting features, enabling users to gain insights into which campaigns and traffic sources are performing best.
Top features of Red Track
Create a tracking URL for each marketing campaign
Track conversions and events on your website or landing pages
Access real-time data and reports to monitor the performance
Conduct split tests to compare different campaigns
Target specific geographic locations and analyze performance data based on regions
Identify and mitigate fraudulent activities to ensure the accuracy of your tracking data
Unlimited tracking, 3 domains, free SSL and data storage for 18 months
Team Plan
$2,490/Yearly
With everything in the basic plan, plus 2 additional users, unlimited domains, live-chat support, and 2-year data storage
Enterprise Plan
$2,490/Yearly
with everything in the team plan, plus 10 additional users, unlimited domains, full API access, live-chat support and 3-year data storage, and more
6. Click Magik
ClickMagick is a sophisticated web-based tool extensively utilized by digital marketers, affiliate marketers, and online businesses for link tracking and comprehensive analytics. Its versatile features empower users to track, optimize, and gain valuable insights from their marketing campaigns across various channels.
What is ClickMagik?
Top features of ClickMagick:
ClickMagick enables users to create unique tracking links tailored to different marketing campaigns and traffic sources.
The pricing plans of Click Magic are mentioned below:
Free trial: They also offer a 14-day free trial.
Plans
Price
Features
Starter plan
$49 per month
10,000 clicks, real-time stats, 1 team member, 2 custom domains tracking, and 6-month data support
Standard plan
$99 per month
100,000 clicks, 3 team members, 10 custom tracking domains, 1-year data retention, cross-device tracking, mobile app, and more
Professional plan
$199 per month
1,000,000 clicks, 2-year data retention, unlimited custom domains, funnel tracking, team members, and more.
7. Link Trackr
LinkTrackr is a powerful web-based platform that offers comprehensive link-tracking and marketing solutions. It allows users to track the performance of their marketing campaigns, efficiently monitor conversions, and optimize their marketing strategies.
100 tracking links, 10000 clicks, default domains Etc.
Pro plan
$17 per month
500 tracking links, 50,000 clicks, pixel tracking Etc.
Hyperplan
$27 per month
Everything you need, but with limitations including 1,000 tracking links,100,000 clicks, custom domain, split testing, link rotator, link cloaking and remarketing
Note: All the plans of Link Trackr are charged cumulatively annually.
Which one is my favorite link tracker?
I have used three link shorteners i.e. Replug, Bitly, and Goog.le. The Goog.le from Google doesn’t exist now. However, there are thousands of alternatives available on the market. I’m not going to lie; I have been using Replug for the past three years, and it has been exceptionally good. No offense to any other link-tracking tool, but Replug has been the best so far. The reasons are multifold. Not only does it provide easy and effective URL shortening, but it also helps in tracking website visitors. Plus, the link analytics makes all the difference. Furthermore, features like A/B testing, deep linking, retargeting, UTM parameters, and others take the link management strategy to the next level. The integrations help marketers expand their digital engagement horizon without breaking the bank. Lastly, pricing is affordable, driving the buying decision in most cases.
How to create a tracking link using Replug in seconds?
Keep track of the performance through the URL shortening tool’s dashboard
FAQs about link trackers
Here are some popular questions about link-tracking tools:
Can you track a URL?
Yes, you can track a URL. All you need is to choose a set of tools to make it happen. Firstly, you need a link management tool like Replug to add UTM parameters and then you need something like Google Analytics to track the respective link.
Can I track someone’s location by link?
The advanced URL tracking tools allow users to keep track of the geographic data of the link clickers. So it’s possible to track someone’s location but it only happens when they click or open the URL. It’s quite common in the email marketing industry. Most email marketing softwares report to the sender how many subscribers opened the email and where these openings have come from.
Are link trackers safe?
Don’t quote us on this because it’s difficult to say that every link-tracking software out there is safe and secure. However, most of the reputed and popular link trackers are safe to use. However, due diligence is always required before opting for a link tracker.
Blogs, industry tips, tools and guides for online marketing
Hassaan Khan is a freelance writer for SAAS companies, e-commerce stores, and niche websites. He has contributed to SEMrush, ThriveGlobal, BloggingCage, AllBloggingTips, and several other publications.
He builds niche websites, publishes e-books, and helps website investors with his done-for-you niche site-building service.
In our fast-paced digital world, managing information overload can be a daunting task. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds have come to the rescue, allowing us to gather content from various sources into one convenient stream.
But wait, there’s a hitch! Long, cumbersome URLs can put a damper on the sharing experience, especially on platforms with character limits. Luckily, there’s a simple solution—automated URL shortening!
In this article, we’ll explore how automated URL shortening can transform your RSS feed, making it easier than ever to share content. We’ll break it down in a straightforward manner, no frills attached, so you can quickly grasp the benefits and implementation methods.
So, let’s dive in and discover how to simplify URLs in your RSS feed, making sharing a piece of cake!
RSS Feed URL: What does it mean?
An RSS Feed URL, or simply an RSS URL, is the web address that points to an RSS feed. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a standardized format for delivering regularly updated content from a website or blog. An RSS feed contains a list of headlines, summaries, and sometimes full content of articles or blog posts. These feeds enable users to subscribe to their favorite websites and receive automatic updates whenever new content is published.
The RSS Feed URL serves as the unique identifier for a specific RSS feed. It is a direct link to the XML file that contains the structured data of the feed. This URL is typically provided by the website or blog that offers the RSS feed, allowing users to add the feed to their preferred RSS reader or aggregator. By subscribing to an RSS feed URL, users can stay updated with the latest content from their favorite websites without needing to visit each site individually.
You can perform the following actions with your created RSS feeds:
Edit: You can update/change your RSS feed whenever you want.
Re-crawl: In order to re-crawl your entire RSS feed, click on the re-crawl button. It will be re-crawled instantly to fetch any new links that have been added for the RSS feed.
Preview: You can preview the list of posts from RSS feeds that are converted.
Remove: You can remove your RSS feed and create a new one or anything else.
Branded Short Links
Create and track branded short links for your business for better conversions.
Are there any tools or services available for automating URL shortening in RSS feeds?
Yes, there are various tools and services available for automating URL shortening in RSS feeds. Replug, Bitly, and other similar platforms provide features specifically designed to shorten URLs in bulk or integrate directly into an RSS feed, making the process seamless and effortless.
Will automated URL shortening affect the functionality or integrity of my RSS feed?
No, automated URL shortening does not affect the functionality or integrity of your RSS feed. It simply replaces the original URLs with shortened versions while maintaining the structure and content of the feed intact. Users will still be able to access the original content by clicking on the shortened URLs.
Can I customize the shortened URLs generated for my RSS feed?
Yes, most URL-shortening tools and services offer customization options. You can often choose to have branded or custom domain URLs for your shortened links, allowing you to maintain consistent branding and create more memorable and recognizable links.
How can I track and analyze the performance of shortened URLs in my RSS feed?
Many URL shortening services provide analytics and tracking features. These allow you to monitor the performance of your shortened URLs in terms of clicks, engagement, and other relevant metrics. You can gain insights into the popularity and effectiveness of your shared content.
Wasiq Naeem is a content and digital marketing veteran who is passionate about his writing. Extensive research and producing high-quality content is just another day at the office for him.
Are you eager to level up your YouTube descriptions and engage your viewers like never before? Well, look no further! Inserting links in your YouTube description can be a game-changer, and we’re here to show you how step-by-step.
Whether you want to share additional resources, promote your social media channels, or drive traffic to your website, we’ve got you covered. Get ready to unlock the full potential of your video descriptions and captivate your audience effortlessly.
Let’s dive in and master the art of inserting links on YouTube, making your content shine brighter than ever!
YouTube descriptions: Why are they important?
YouTube video description plays a crucial role in maximizing the impact of your videos. Not only can it improve your YouTube SEO and video rankings, but it also provides valuable information about your content. Let’s explore why video descriptions are so important.
A well-crafted video description can significantly enhance your YouTube SEO. Including relevant keywords and phrases in your description increase the chances of your video appearing in search results. This means more visibility and potential viewership for your content.
Providing Context:
YouTube video description allows you to provide additional context and details about your video. You can break down your video into chapters or sections, making navigating and finding specific information easier for viewers. This enhances the overall viewer experience and encourages engagement.
Channel Introduction:
YouTube video description is an excellent opportunity to introduce your channel to new viewers. You can give a brief overview of your content, highlight your unique selling points, and encourage viewers to subscribe for more exciting videos.
Driving Traffic:
Additionally, the description box enables you to include links to external websites, such as your personal website or affiliate offers. This allows you to drive traffic to other platforms or monetize your content through partnerships.
Step 4: In the description box, type “https://” followed by the URL of the link you want to include.
Step 5: Save your changes by clicking on the “Save” button.
Congratulations! You have successfully added a link to your YouTube video description.
Please note that the above steps are applicable to videos that are already uploaded or published. If you wish to add a link to the description of a video you are currently uploading or planning to upload, simply include “https://” and the URL in the description field during the upload process.
Here’s how to insert links in YouTube Descriptions on a mobile device:
On a mobile device:
Adding a link to your YouTube description on mobile devices is just as simple as on a desktop. Follow these steps:
Step 1: Open the YouTube app on your mobile device and sign in to your account.
Step 2: Find the video for which you want to add a link in the description.
Step 3: Tap on the video to open it and then tap on the “More” button (represented by three dots) below the video.
Step 4: From the options that appear, select “Edit video.”
Step 5: Scroll down to the description field and locate the spot where you want to add the link.
Step 6: Type “https://” followed by the URL you want to include in the description.
Step 7: Once you have entered the link, tap on the “Save” or “Publish” button to save your changes.
Congratulations! You have successfully added a link to your YouTube video description using a mobile device.
Remember, the process of adding a link remains the same: simply include “https://” followed by the URL in the description field. Now you can seamlessly include links in your YouTube video descriptions, whether you’re using a desktop computer or a mobile device. Happy linking!
Shortening your YouTube links can be the secret ingredient to maximizing your impact. With shorter, more concise links, you’ll capture your audience’s attention, drive more clicks, and achieve higher engagement.
Here’s how to shorten YouTube Links using Replug:
If you’re looking to shorten your YouTube links effectively, Replug provides a seamless solution. Follow these steps to shorten YouTube links using Replug:
Step 1: Sign in to your Replug account or create a new account if you haven’t already.
Step 2: On the main dashboard page, click “Select your campaign’’ or create a new campaign in just a few seconds.
Step 3: Paste your YouTube link or any link your want to shorten in the “URL to shorten” section below “Select your campaign” and click “Create”.
Step 4: You’ll have your YouTube link shortened, now, click the edit icon to customize your link.
Step 5: Copy your link, click the “update button” and you’re done.
By using Replug’s link-shortening feature, you not only get concise and visually appealing YouTube links, but you also gain access to advanced analytics and tracking capabilities. These insights will enable you to measure the performance of your links, understand audience engagement, and optimize your marketing strategies accordingly.
Branded Short Links
Create and track branded short links for your business for better conversions.
Why is it important to include links in my YouTube video description?
Including links in your YouTube video description is important because it allows you to provide additional resources, redirect viewers to relevant websites, promote affiliate offers, and enhance the overall viewer experience. Links can also drive traffic to your website or social media profiles, increasing engagement and conversions.
Can I include multiple links in my YouTube video description?
Yes, you can include multiple links in your YouTube video description. However, it’s essential to ensure that the links are relevant and add value to your viewers. Avoid overwhelming the description with too many links, as it may appear cluttered and distract from the main content.
Are there any restrictions or guidelines for the types of links I can add to my YouTube description?
YouTube has community guidelines and policies that you must adhere to when adding links. Ensure that the links are not spammy, violate copyright or community standards, or redirect to malicious websites. Familiarize yourself with YouTube’s policies to ensure compliance.
Can I add clickable links in the description that viewers can directly click on?
Yes, YouTube automatically converts URLs in the video description to clickable links. As long as you include the full URL (e.g., https://www.example.com), viewers will be able to click on the link and be redirected to the desired webpage.\
Arslan is a SaaS content marketer who crafts clear, engaging content that drives results. He simplifies complex ideas into easily understandable blog posts, landing pages, and emails, helping SaaS companies connect with their audience and grow.
Are you tired of dealing with long and complicated web addresses? Do you wish there was an easier way to share URLs without all the extra baggage? Well, look no further!
In this easy-to-follow guide, we’ll walk you through the step-by-step process of creating short links. No more fussing with lengthy links that clutter up your messages and confuse your audience.
Say goodbye to the days of overwhelming web addresses, and say hello to the simplicity of short links. Let’s dive in and unlock the power of shortened URLs!
Why do you need a short URL link?
The modern digital world is fast-paced, attention spans are short, and information overload is a constant issue. Having a short link has several advantages. Here are a few reasons why you might need a short link:
Long, complex URLs can be difficult to remember and share. Shortening them makes them more manageable and easier to type or copy/paste, saving time and effort for both you and your audience.
2. Enhance Sharability:
Short links are perfect for social media platforms like Twitter, where character limitations can be restrictive. By using a concise link, you can convey your message effectively while still including the essential information.
3. Improve Aesthetics:
A shorter URL looks cleaner and more visually appealing. It can enhance the overall presentation of your content, whether you’re sharing it in an email, presentation, or any other medium.
Many URL shortening services provide analytics tools that allow you to track and analyze the performance of your links. You can gain valuable insights into the number of clicks, geographical distribution, and even the devices used to access your content.
5. Maintain Brand Consistency:
Short links can incorporate your brand or company name, reinforcing brand recognition and consistency across various online channels.
Ultimately, a short link offers convenience, improved engagement, and a more professional appearance. It’s a simple yet effective tool to optimize your online presence and make the most out of your digital communications.
Click on “Select your Campaign” on the main dashboard page. If you want to create a new campaign go to “Manage” > “Campaigns”.
Give your campaign a name that represents the purpose or content of the URL you want to shorten.
Step 3: Add the Original URL
Once created or selected a campaign paste the long URL you wish to shorten into the “URL to shorten” field and click “Create”.
Step 4: Customize the Short link
Replug allows you to customize the short URL to reflect your brand or campaign. You can add a custom URL slug in this step.
Note: You can also edit the domain or select a custom path to represent your brand and content. This can be accomplished by creating a custom domain campaign. Learn more about setting up a custom domain here.
Step 5: Add extra features to your URL
Replug offers additional features like customizable call-to-action overlays and retargeting pixels, allowing you to optimize your shortened URLs for increased conversions and audience engagement. If you want to track and analyze your shortened URL’s performance, you can add UTM parameters.
Step 6: Copy and Share:
Copy the shortened URL and click the “update” button. Share your URL across your desired platforms, such as social media, emails, or any other communication channels.
Short URLs work by redirecting users from a shorter link to the original, longer URL, making it easier to share and remember.
Can I customize the short link generated by Replug?
Yes, with Replug, you can customize the short URL to reflect your brand or campaign by using your own domain or subdomain.
Can I track the performance of my short URLs?
Yes, Replug provides analytics and tracking features to monitor the performance of your short links, including click-through rates, geographical data, and other valuable insights.
Are short URLs safe to use?
Short URLs are generally safe to use. However, it’s essential to exercise caution and ensure that the shortening service you use is trustworthy and reputable to avoid potential security risks or link spam.
How long do short URLs created with Replug remain active?
Short URLs created with Replug remain active indefinitely unless you choose to deactivate or delete them manually.
Can I use Replug for social media sharing and tracking engagement?
Absolutely! Replug is designed to be compatible with social media platforms, making it easy to share shortened URLs and track engagement metrics across different social media channels.
Arslan is a SaaS content marketer who crafts clear, engaging content that drives results. He simplifies complex ideas into easily understandable blog posts, landing pages, and emails, helping SaaS companies connect with their audience and grow.
Attention Instagram enthusiasts! Are you tired of those lengthy and cumbersome links cluttering up your precious bio space? Well, get ready to revolutionize your Instagram game because we’ve got the ultimate solution for you!
With this guide, you’ll learn how to shorten your links, allowing you to share more content, drive more traffic, and make your Instagram bio a sleek and captivating reflection of your brand.
So, say goodbye to clunky URLs and hello to a world of concise, elegant, and clickable links.
Get ready to transform your Instagram bio and take your online presence to new heights with our step-by-step guide on how to shorten a link for Instagram bio. Let’s dive in!
Shortened link: What does it mean?
A shortened link, also known as a shortened URL, is a compressed version of a long web address. It is a technique used to take a lengthy URL and convert it into a much shorter and more manageable format.
For example, a regular web address like “https://www.examplewebsite.com/blog/how-to-shorten-a-link-for-instagram-bio” can be transformed into a shortened link like “https://replug.link/xyz.”
The purpose of shortening links is to make them more user-friendly, easier to share, and more visually appealing. These shortened links are commonly used in various contexts, including social media platforms like Instagram, where character limitations may restrict the length of URLs.
Replug is a URL shortening and link management tool that offers a range of features to enhance your Instagram marketing efforts. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to shorten a link for your Instagram bio using Replug:
Step 2: Once you’re logged in, you’ll find a dashboard where you can manage your links. To start, click the “Select your campaign” button or create a new campaign if you are a new user.
Step 3: Paste your Instagram bio link into the “URL to shorten” section and click “Create”. Replug will automatically generate a shortened link for you.
Step 4: Customize your shortened link. Replug provides customization options, allowing you to create branded and memorable links. You can edit the link to include a relevant keyword or a unique identifier that represents your content or brand in the case of an Instagram bio link.
Note: Replug offers an analytics feature that allows you to monitor the performance of your Instagram bio link. You can gain valuable insights into the number of clicks, geographic distribution, and user behavior related to your link.
Replug’s Bio Link feature is an invaluable tool for optimizing your Instagram bio and maximizing your online presence. Here are some key reasons why you need Replug’s Bio Link feature:
Consolidates Multiple Links:
Instead of one clickable link, you can direct visitors to multiple destinations from a single bio link.
Enhances User Experience:
It provides a clean, organized layout for easy navigation and a visually appealing experience.
Boosts Promotion Opportunities:
Promote campaigns, products, and events directly in your bio with custom buttons and sections.
Offers Analytics and Insights:
Get valuable data on link performance, clicks, engagement, and visitor demographics.
Allows Customization and Branding:
Personalize the design, colors, and layout to align with your brand identity.
Replug’s Bio Link feature optimizes your Instagram bio, drives traffic to multiple destinations, and provides a seamless user experience. It’s a powerful tool for effective promotion and brand enhancement.
Create bio links for Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn.
Create fully customizable bio link webpages to drive traffic from and to your social media channels, online store, website and much more.
Yes, you can use any URL shortener that supports custom links. We suggest Replug as it comes with a lot of other fun features that make you stand as a brand.
Are there any limitations on the number of characters in an Instagram bio link?
Instagram bios have a limited character count, so shorter links are ideal.
Can I edit or delete a shortened link in my Instagram bio?
Yes, you can edit or delete shortened links in your Instagram bio.
Arslan is a SaaS content marketer who crafts clear, engaging content that drives results. He simplifies complex ideas into easily understandable blog posts, landing pages, and emails, helping SaaS companies connect with their audience and grow.
URL slug, or user-friendly web address, plays a vital role in enhancing user experiences and attracting search engine attention. Think of them as the superheroes of your website’s links, guiding visitors and search engines to the right content with ease.
But why should you care about optimizing URL slugs? The answer is simple: by optimizing these slugs, you can boost your website’s visibility, increase click-through rates, and improve overall user engagement. It’s like giving your website a powerful advantage in the digital arena.
In this guide, we’ll dive into practical strategies and expert tips for optimizing your URL slugs. You’ll learn how to create concise and descriptive slugs that resonate with both humans and search engines, ultimately leading to improved rankings and a better user experience.
Let’s dive in and uncover the secrets of URL slug optimization together!
What is a URL slug?
A URL slug is a component of a web address or URL that represents a specific page or resource on a website. It is the human-readable part of the URL that typically appears after the domain name or root address. URL slugs are designed to be descriptive and concise, providing users with a clear idea of the content they can expect to find on the page.
For example, in the URL “https://www.example.com/blog/post-title,” the slug is “post-title.” It serves as a user-friendly identifier for a particular blog post on the website. The purpose of a URL slug is to improve the readability of the web address, making it easier for users to understand and remember.
URL slugs often contain relevant keywords that describe the content of the page, which can have benefits for search engine optimization (SEO). Search engines use these slugs as signals to understand the context and relevance of a webpage, potentially improving its visibility in search results.
Step 2: In WordPress, the slug is the part of your URL that you can edit when writing or editing a post.
Note: WordPress will automatically update the URL slug based on your modifications. However, keep in mind that changing the URL slug of an existing post or page may affect its SEO and any existing links pointing to that URL. Consider setting up proper redirects to avoid broken links or loss of search engine rankings if necessary.
Step 3: To change an existing URL slug or to change the URL slug structure access permalink settings. From the left-hand menu, locate and click on “Settings,” and then select “Permalinks.” This action will take you to the Permalink Settings page, where you can customize your Permalink structure.
Note: We recommend choosing an option in which the URL contains relevant words, as this provides users and search engines with more information about the page than an ID or parameter would.
Remember to preview your changes and verify that the new URL slug reflects your intentions before publishing or updating the post/page.
If you’re looking for an easy way to shorten or change URL slugs, you can utilize our link management tool called “Replug.” Replug is a powerful tool that allows you to manage and optimize your URL slugs effortlessly. Here’s how you can use Replug to shorten or modify your URL slugs:
Step 3: Enter the link in the “URL to shorten” section below “Select your campaign” and click Create.
Note: Here, you can also add UTM parameters to your link to track the performance of that link. Using UTM parameters can help you better understand which marketing channels and campaigns are driving the most traffic and conversions for your website.
URL slugs play an important role in search engine optimization (SEO) for several reasons:
Relevance and Keyword Visibility:
URL slugs provide search engines and users with valuable information about the content of a webpage. Including relevant keywords in the URL, slug can help search engines understand the context of the page and improve its visibility in relevant search results.
User Experience:
Clear, concise, and descriptive URL slugs make it easier for users to understand what a webpage is about before clicking on it in search results. When the URL slug aligns with the user’s search intent, they are more likely to click through, resulting in improved user engagement metrics, such as click-through rates (CTRs).
URL slugs that are easy to read and remember can contribute to a positive user experience. When users can recall or manually enter a URL
based on its slug, it can increase direct traffic to the website and enhance brand recognition.
Link Sharing and Anchor Text:
When other websites link to your content, they often use the URL as the anchor text. Having an optimized URL slug with relevant keywords can make the anchor text more informative and contribute to the overall SEO value of the backlink.
Social Sharing:
URL slugs are often displayed when content is shared on social media platforms. A clean, concise, and keyword-rich slug can make the shared link more appealing, increasing the likelihood of clicks and engagement on social media.
How can I optimize URL slugs for better search engine rankings?
To optimize URL slugs, aim for concise and descriptive slugs that include relevant keywords. Avoid using stop words, numbers, or unnecessary characters. Ensure the slug accurately reflects the content of the page and is user-friendly.
Are there any best practices for creating descriptive URL slugs?
Yes, some best practices include using lowercase letters, separating words with hyphens, and keeping the slug brief but meaningful. Incorporate relevant keywords naturally and make sure the slug is easy to understand and remember.
Can I change the URL slug of an existing webpage without affecting SEO?
Changing URL slugs can impact SEO if not handled properly. It’s crucial to set up proper redirects (301 redirects) from the old URL to the new one to maintain search engine rankings and avoid broken links.
What are the potential consequences of having long or irrelevant URL slugs?
Long or irrelevant URL slugs can negatively affect SEO and user experience. They may confuse search engines and users, hamper keyword visibility, and result in lower click-through rates.
Are there any WordPress plugins or tools specifically designed for URL slug optimization?
Yes, there are several WordPress plugins available that can assist with URL slug optimization, such as Yoast SEO, Rank Math, or All in One SEO Pack. These plugins offer features to customize and optimize URL slugs within your WordPress website.
How do URL slugs impact user experience and website navigation?
URL slugs impact the user experience by providing a clear indication of what to expect from a webpage. Descriptive and readable slugs help users understand the content and improve website navigation, leading to better engagement and satisfaction.
Should I include keywords in my URL slugs, and if so, how can I choose the right ones?
Including relevant keywords in URLs, and slugs can be beneficial for SEO. Choose keywords that accurately represent the page’s content and align with user search intent. Conduct keyword research to identify commonly used terms and phrases.
Are there any recommended character limits or restrictions for URL slugs?
While there is no strict character limit for URL slugs, it’s generally recommended to keep them as concise as possible. Long slugs may get truncated in search results, so aim for a length that is easy to read and share.
Can URL slugs be localized for multilingual websites, and how does it affect SEO?
Yes, URL slugs can be localized for multilingual websites to cater to different languages or regions. Properly localized slugs help improve SEO by signaling to search engines the language or region-specific relevance of the content.
Arslan is a SaaS content marketer who crafts clear, engaging content that drives results. He simplifies complex ideas into easily understandable blog posts, landing pages, and emails, helping SaaS companies connect with their audience and grow.
In today’s digital age, the internet has become an essential part of our daily lives, allowing us to access information, connect with others, and conduct business anywhere.
However, some websites and online content may be blocked or restricted in certain regions, making accessing the information they need difficult. Being blocked can be frustrating if you’re trying to stream your favorite TV show or access a website for work or research purposes.
Luckily, there are several ways to unblock websites and gain access to restricted content. In this guide, we’ll explore seven effective methods for accessing blocked websites and content, so you can get back to browsing the internet freely and securely.
Why do websites get blocked?
There are various reasons why websites can get blocked. Some of the common reasons include:
Government censorship
In some countries, the government may block certain websites that they consider to be a threat to national security, or that they deem inappropriate.
Workplace or school restrictions
Employers and schools often use web filters to prevent employees or students from accessing websites that are not related to work or studies.
Geo-restrictions
Some websites may be blocked in certain countries due to licensing agreements or legal restrictions.
Website maintenance:
Occasionally, websites may be temporarily blocked for maintenance or updates.
Hacking and cyber threats
Websites that have been hacked or are susceptible to cyber-attacks may be temporarily or permanently blocked to prevent further damage.
The reasons for website blocking can vary widely, and it’s important to understand why a website has been blocked before attempting to access it using any of the methods mentioned above.
Here’s how to unblock websites using seven different ways:
1. Use a VPN
If you’re looking for a reliable and secure way to access restricted websites, a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a great option. A VPN encrypts your internet traffic and routes it through a secure server in another location, making it look like you’re accessing the internet from that location. This not only lets you unblock websites that are restricted in your region, but it also adds an extra layer of security to your online activities.
VPNs are easy to use, simply download and install a reputable VPN service on your device, select a server location, and connect to the internet.
2. Use a Proxy
Another way to unblock restricted websites is by using a proxy server. A proxy acts as a middleman between your device and the internet, allowing you to access websites that may be blocked in your region. Proxies are typically free to use, but they may not always be reliable or secure. For affordable and secure proxy solutions, websites like ProxyCoupons can help you find deals and discounts on trusted proxy providers.
For example, you can use a web-based proxy site such as HideMyAss or KProxy to access the blocked website by entering the website URL into the proxy site’s search bar. To use a proxy, you’ll need to find a proxy server and configure your device to use it. You can find free proxy servers online, but it’s important to be cautious when using them, as they may not be trustworthy. Using a free online proxy checker is a helpful way to verify the functionality and security of a proxy server before relying on it for your online activities.
Tor is a free and open-source software that lets you browse the internet anonymously. It works by encrypting your internet traffic and routing it through a network of volunteer-run servers, making it difficult for anyone to track your online activities.
To use Tor, simply download and install the Tor browser on your device, and you’ll be able to access the internet anonymously. However, it’s worth noting that Tor can be slower than other methods of accessing the internet, so it may not be the best option if you need to access websites quickly.
4. Use a URL Shortener
If a website is blocked due to its URL, you can try using a URL shortener to access it. URL shorteners like Replug or Rebrandly take a long website address and shorten it to a shorter, more manageable URL. By using a URL shortener, you may be able to bypass website blocks that are based on the website’s URL.
When using a URL shortener, simply visit the website of your chosen service, enter the URL of the blocked website, and click “shorten.” You’ll be provided with a new, shortened URL that you can use to access the website.
If a website has been recently blocked in your region, you may still be able to access it via its crawl history. Search engines like Google and Bing regularly crawl websites and store cached versions of the website’s pages. By accessing the cached version of the website, you may be able to bypass any website blocks that are currently in place.
To access a website’s crawl history, simply search for the website on a search engine and look for the “cached” option next to the search results. Clicking on the cached version will take you to a version of the website that was saved by the search engine. For example, you can use the Wayback Machine website to access a website’s previous versions and find the version of the website that was not blocked.
6. Change Your Device Settings
In some cases, website blocks may be based on your device settings. For example, if you’re using a public Wi-Fi network, the network’s administrator may have blocked certain websites. To bypass these blocks, you can try changing your device’s DNS settings or using a different Wi-Fi network.
To change your device’s DNS settings, go to your device’s network settings and enter a new DNS server address. Some popular DNS servers include Google DNS, OpenDNS, and Cloudflare DNS.
If a website is blocked due to your account being banned or suspended, you may need to create a new account to access the website. However, this method may not work for all websites, as some may block your IP address from accessing their content even if you create a new account.
To open a new account, you will need to create a new email address, username, and password. Make sure to use a different email address than the one you used for your previous account, as some websites may block your new account if they detect that it is associated with a previously banned or suspended account.
This method is useful if the website has banned your previous account, but it may not be effective if the website has blocked your IP address. Additionally, creating multiple accounts on a website can be against their terms of service, so be sure to read the website’s policies before creating a new account.
For example, social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook may ban accounts for violating their community guidelines. In such cases, creating a new account with a different email address and username can help you regain access to the website. However, some websites like Netflix may not allow users to create multiple accounts, and may even block the new account if they detect that it is associated with a previously banned or suspended account.
While using a proxy can be a quick and easy way to access blocked websites, it’s important to be cautious about the security implications. Some proxies may collect and store your personal information, or be used by hackers to steal your data. Make sure to choose a reputable and secure proxy provider, and use HTTPS websites to ensure that your browsing activity is encrypted.
How do I know if a website is blocked?
If you’re unable to access a website, the first step is to check whether the site is actually down or blocked. You can use online tools such as DownForEveryoneOrJustMe.com to see if the site is unavailable to everyone, or just to you. You can also try accessing the site using a different device or network to rule out any issues with your own connection.
Can I unblock websites on my mobile phone?
Yes, many of the methods for unblocking websites described above can also be used on mobile devices. For example, you can use a VPN app to access blocked sites, or use a browser with built-in proxy support. However, keep in mind that some mobile networks may have more aggressive content filtering in place, so you may need to use more advanced methods to bypass these restrictions.
Is it legal to unblock websites?
The legality of unblocking websites can vary depending on the country and the circumstances. In some countries, it is illegal to use VPNs or proxies to access blocked websites. However, in most cases, unblocking websites for personal use is not considered illegal. It is always recommended to research the local laws and regulations related to internet usage and unblocking websites before attempting to do so.
Why is my internet blocking websites?
There can be various reasons why your internet is blocking websites. One common reason is the use of content filtering software or parental controls, which block access to certain categories of websites. Another reason could be the use of firewalls or antivirus software that blocks websites with malicious content or phishing attempts. In some cases, your internet service provider (ISP) may be blocking certain websites due to legal or regulatory reasons.
How do I stop my browser from blocking a website?
If your browser is blocking a website, you can try the following steps:
– Check if the website is included in your browser’s block list and remove it if necessary.
– Disable any browser extensions that may be causing the issue.
– Clear your browser cache and cookies.
– Reset your browser settings to default.
How do I unblock a website on a school Chromebook?
If you are using a school Chromebook, the ability to unblock websites may be restricted by the school’s IT policies. However, you can try the following steps:
– Use a VPN or proxy to access the blocked website.
– Try accessing the website through a different browser.
– Ask the school’s IT department to unblock the website if it is necessary for academic purposes.
Arslan is a SaaS content marketer who crafts clear, engaging content that drives results. He simplifies complex ideas into easily understandable blog posts, landing pages, and emails, helping SaaS companies connect with their audience and grow.
Have you ever come across a long and confusing URL that you needed to share with others? It’s frustrating, isn’t it? Luckily, tiny URLs offer a solution to this problem. By shortening links, you can make them easier to share and remember. In this guide, we’ll take you through the step-by-step process of creating tiny URLs, so you can start sharing your links more efficiently and effectively.
However, not all URL shorteners are created equal. Some may have limitations, while others may not be reliable. That’s why we recommend Replug as the best URL shortener on the market.
Replug offers an all-in-one solution for all your link-shortening needs. With its powerful analytics and customization options, Replug helps you track and optimize your links, so you can get the best results for your business. Let’s dive in and learn how to create tiny URLs that work best for you!
How to create a tiny URL using Replug?
To create a tiny URL using Replug, follow these simple steps:
Step 1: Sign in to Replug or create an account for free.
That’s it! You now have a short and easy-to-remember link that you can share with your audience. Plus, with Replug’s analytics and optimization features, you can track your link’s performance and make adjustments to improve your results. Creating tiny URLs with Replug is quick, easy, and effective. Give it a try today!
FAQs
What is a tiny URL?
A tiny URL is a shortened version of a long URL that makes it easier to share and remember. It’s commonly used in social media posts, emails, and other digital content.
What is Replug?
Replug is a URL shortener and link management tool that helps you create and optimize your long URL’s into tiny URLs. With its powerful analytics and customization options, Replug helps you track and improve your links’ performance.
Can I track the performance of my tiny URLs with Replug?
Yes, Replug offers advanced analytics that let you track your links’ clicks, conversions, and other important metrics. You can use this data to optimize your links and improve your results.
Arslan is a SaaS content marketer who crafts clear, engaging content that drives results. He simplifies complex ideas into easily understandable blog posts, landing pages, and emails, helping SaaS companies connect with their audience and grow.
Snapchat is one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, known for its unique features that allow users to share pictures and videos that disappear after a set amount of time. With millions of daily active users, Snapchat has become a go-to platform for sharing candid moments with friends and family.
However, have you ever wanted to share your Snapchat profile with someone who doesn’t have the app, or include your Snapchat handle on your website or social media profiles?
In this article, we will show you how to get your Snapchat URL and share it with the world, so that you can connect with more people and expand your social circle.
So, whether you’re a seasoned Snapchat user or just getting started, keep reading to learn how to get your Snapchat URL and make your profile more visible to others.
Step 4: Tap the “copy” button at the bottom left corner and that’s all there is to it.
Whether you’re looking to connect with new friends, promote your brand or business, or simply share your Snap stories with a wider audience, having your Snapchat URL readily available can be a great way to expand your reach and build your online presence.
A Snapchat URL is a link to your Snapchat profile that can be shared with others. It allows people who don’t have the Snapchat app to view your profile and connect with you.
Is my Snapchat URL public?
Your Snapchat URL is not public by default. However, if you share your URL with others, they will be able to view your profile and connect with you.
Can I get my Snapchat URL on both mobile and computer devices?
No, you cannot get your Snapchat URL on computer devices. You can only get your Snapchat URL on a mobile device.
What is my Snapchat username?
Your Snapchat username is the unique identifier that you created when you signed up for your Snapchat account. It should be the name that appears in your profile, and it’s also the name that your friends can use to add you to the app. If you’re not sure what your Snapchat username is, you can open the Snapchat app and check your profile to see what name appears at the top of the screen.
Arslan is a SaaS content marketer who crafts clear, engaging content that drives results. He simplifies complex ideas into easily understandable blog posts, landing pages, and emails, helping SaaS companies connect with their audience and grow.
Are you tired of casting a wide net with your marketing efforts and not seeing the results you want? It’s time to hone in on your target audience with the power of custom audience building. By using tracking URLs, you can gather valuable data on your website visitors and create tailored campaigns that resonate with their interests and behaviors.
Have you ever noticed that a website you visited the other day starts to show you ads on Facebook?
I’m sure it has happened to you because we have all been there. In the beginning, I was fascinated to see the Facebook ads for the products I was checking out earlier.
You might also want to know what the heck is going on. So let me briefly tell you what’s happening here. When you visit a website, the website tracks your footprints and reaches out to you via online ads, and it’s called retargeting.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to build a custom audience by tracking URLs and taking your marketing efforts to the next level. Get ready to connect with your audience in a whole new way!
Before I dig deeper into the custom audience building and tracking URL, I must highlight the jargon I’m going to be using in the article. So here are the things you may come across as you keep scrolling through the article:
URL tracking: A system to track link clickability is known as URL tracking.
Pixel code: A code snippet from social media platforms that goes into the source for retargeting.
Lead generation: An action of a trial account sign-up or demo request by a prospective customer is called lead generation.
Retargeting campaigns: A campaign to reach out to the audience that has been to your website before and win them back.
Email list: A list of subscribers who opted for receiving your email newsletters.
Before we dive into learning how to build a custom audience, you should know what exactly a custom audience is.
A group of audience that has visited your website before and becomes reachable through online advertising across multiple social media and ad networks is known as a custom audience.
The custom audience is primarily built to retarget the audience through online advertising. The process begins with getting a pixel code from the social media platform and placing it into the website source code.
Once a visitor lands on the website or landing page (where the pixel code exists), it enters into the custom audience and becomes reachable through a retargeting ad campaign.
Now you know what a custom audience is, so let’s take it further.
What is URL tracking?
URL tracking is a process of adding unique parameters to a URL to track user engagement and activity. This enables businesses and marketers to gather data on how users are interacting with their online content and marketing campaigns. By analyzing the data from URL tracking, businesses can optimize their online strategies and improve their return on investment (ROI).
What is UTM in social media?
UTM stands for “Urchin Tracking Module,” which is a code that is added to the end of a URL to track the effectiveness of a social media campaign. UTM parameters are used to help marketers understand how users are interacting with their content and which social media channels are driving traffic to their websites.
UTM parameters can be added to any link shared on social media, including posts, ads, and direct messages. By adding UTM parameters to these links, marketers can track how many people clicked on the link, which social media platform they were on when they clicked the link and other important data points. This information can be used to optimize social media campaigns and improve their overall effectiveness.
A UTM parameter is a referral traffic tracking system that adds a slug in the URL to make it easier for marketers and businesses to track website traffic sources and tracking URLs. This process comes in handy for websites and blogs to measure outcomes such as click-through rate, lead generation, and conversion rate.
Replug: An all-in-one URL Shortener Tool
Replug is an excellent link management tool for branded URL shortening, adding retargeting pixels, embedding call-to-actions, and creating social media bio-links.
It isn’t any ordinary URL shortener tool, instead, it’s equipped with several marketing tools under the same umbrella.
Besides URL shortening, if you have been trying to bring website visitors to your website through social media, Replug can come in handy in generating trackable short URLs. This URL Generator can bring 2x leads with retargeting.
Not only does it provide the URL shortening service, but it also gives you clickability analytics, meaning when a visitor clicks on your branded short link, you can track it using Replug.
If you have been using social media for a while, you may have come across people who can’t figure social media out. Whereas, on the other hand, some users keep crushing it with social media. They constantly share their content as well as share others’ content to spice things up.
When a user shares others’ content, it often starts the conversation and that’s how the engagement begins.
A URL shortener like Replug could be a great resource when you want to track the clicks on your social media posts.
You might wonder why sharing others’ content doesn’t bring eyeballs to our website. What if I told you that you can now share others’ content and still bring visitors to your website? That’s where Replug comes in. Read this guide on using branded short URLs for marketing.
Furthermore, you can generate a custom audience through the tracking URL capability of Replug tool. Let’s shed some light on how you can do this:
How to Build a Custom Audience through URL Tracking
Now you may have some idea about custom audience and link tracking. So without any further ado, let’s get to the cream of this blog post.
There are two ways to build a custom audience through URL trackers using Replug. Let’s take a look at both ways of building a custom audience through link tracking:
Replug is an all-in-one URL shortener that takes your digital marketing to the next level. The tool is an effective URL tracker for building a custom audience.
To get started with opt-in forms methods, follow the below-mentioned steps:
Login to your Replug account and click on the drop-down called Manage. Then choose the Campaigns option from the down-down menu.
Now click on the New Campaign since we’re going to create a fresh campaign.
Once you land on the next page, choose the brand you have created in the Replug or you can go for creating a new brand if you haven’t already created one.
After choosing the brand, the next up is the campaign creation process.
Name your campaign and skip the custom URL option if you haven’t added a short, custom domain to your brand.
Choose between call-to-action and 3rd-party/custom widgets.
When you pick the call-to-action (CTA) option, you’ll come across three options to choose from:
Button
It’s a call-to-action button underneath a headline on the popup. The purpose of a CTA button is to push people to click through and enter into the funnel or lead generation process.
Link
A link option gives you a headline, description, and text-based link. It’s more of a hyperlink-based call-to-action button written underneath some text.
Form
The form provides you with an opt-in popup that would enable you to collect leads. This feature performs best during building a custom audience.
These were three options available in the call-to-action feature.
However, if you choose the 3rd-party/custom widget option, it would let you select between the already created custom widget from the drop-down menu and create a custom widget.
To create a custom widget, you’d need to paste a 3rd-party widget code into it to proceed.
So that’s how you can use the opt-in forms for building a custom audience through tracking URLs.
The second way to build a custom audience is by using retargeting pixels. Replug allows you to retarget the audience across several social media platforms, such as Facebook, Quora, Linked In, Pinterest, and Twitter.
Follow the steps below to start retargeting by tracking the URL:
To start a retargeting campaign using Replug, go to Manage and then click on Campaigns.
Add a new campaign just like you did in method 1.
Choose the brand (or build if you haven’t already built one) to get going.
Name the campaign in the next step, and choose or add a custom domain to your campaign if you need to.
Don’t forget to select the campaign type underneath the campaign name and custom domain. Choose the Retargeting Pixel at this step.
Right after choosing the retargeting pixel option, you’d have to choose between a Call-to-Action (CTA) and 3rd-party/Custom Widgets.
If you choose the CTA option, it’ll provide you with the same three options:
Button
Link
Form
The snippet preview would appear at the bottom; you could choose the button or link as a CTA option. However, if you choose the form option, it’ll provide you with a lead collection feature.
It means you could connect your campaign with the email list to collect email addresses in your email marketing software.
However, if you choose the 3rd-party/custom widget option right after selecting the retargeting pixel option, you could target the audience that click-through the CTAs through several social media advertising platforms.
You can pick either Facebook, Quora, Linked In, Pinterest, or Twitter.
Once you go ahead with the social media platform selection, you’d need to name your script and provide the pixel ID from the respective social media platform.
For instance, if you’ve chosen Facebook in your retargeting campaign, you should go to Ads Manager in your Facebook account.
Then, click on the Event Manager to get the Pixel ID of your Facebook ad account.
Once you’re done with providing the details, add the retargeting pixel and save the campaign.
Also, remember that creating a campaign is half the equation. The other half is using the campaign to generate leads or bring visitors back to your website.
Example: A retargeting Facebook Ad for the COIN app
I want to show you an example of how fascinating building a custom audience or retargeting visitors is.
I have been checking out the Coin App website on my phone – it’s a company that rewards for providing GPS data through their app.
The next day, I came across their Facebook ad when I was scrolling through my Facebook feed.
What it means is that they’re using the Facebook retargeting ad campaign to reach out to the website visitors and trying to bring them back to their website using retargeting ads.
That’s the power of retargeting and targeting a specific audience instead of showcasing ads to everyone out there.
Why you should know about building a custom audience
Have you ever wondered why you should pay attention to building a custom audience in the first place? Here are some of the key reasons why you should think twice before ignoring building a custom audience:
Sift-through the crowd
It’s a bit hard to discover the audience that might be interested in your product or service. When you try to reach out to the audience through online advertising or content marketing with no filters on it, you’re likely to stumble upon everyone – even those who aren’t relevant to your business.
Therefore, building a custom audience helps you sift through the population and helps you reach the segment that could potentially be interested in your message.
Look-alike audience
A look-alike audience is a similar audience to your existing customers, and you identify them through their demographics, behaviors, and choices. It’s a lot easier to engage or sell to a look-alike audience than to a random audience.
When you put in the work in building a custom audience, the chances are, you could bring in a look-alike audience on board.
Easier to reach out
You must have some idea by now that it’s a bit challenging when targeting a generic audience. Sure the ad platforms have several features that shape your campaign and improve your targeting but it’s always difficult to reach out to a newer audience than to a familiar audience.
Therefore, the custom audience solution comes to the rescue in this situation. Retargeting is a way to go when you want to reach out to a custom audience. The top social networks and ad platforms such as Google, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Quora, and Twitter allow you to retarget the audience.
Improves the conversion rate
When you’re targeting a custom audience and sending a message across, it’s mostly well-received on the receiving end because of the connection.
Have you had a chance that you visited a website and the same website’s ad shows up on other sites? The reason is that the advertiser is targeting visitors who have visited the website before.
Most prospective customers want to check out the product they already know about or are familiar with. Therefore, many online advertisers run retargeting ad campaigns to the custom audience when they’re offering huge discounts. This way, they get a better conversion rate.
What are your thoughts on building a custom audience through tracking URLs?
We’ve explained the custom audience and URL tracking so that you could make them a part of your marketing arsenal. Plus, I discussed how you can start building a custom audience through tracking links with Replug tool.
Most of us use short URLs while sharing content on social media so that the links don’t look long and unattractive. No wonder it’s surprising that you could build a custom audience through link tracking using Replug– URL Shortener.
I’d be thrilled to find out your thoughts on building a custom audience through URL trackers. Would you consider trying this strategy out?
Let us know in the comments section or through our social media channels.
FAQs
How do I get a tracking URL?
Follow these steps to create a tracking URL:
Copy the URL that you want to track from your website, social media account, or any other location.
Go to the Replug website and paste the URL into the text box provided on the main dashboard.
Click on the “Create” button to generate a shortened URL with tracking capabilities.
Replug allows you to track clicks and other engagement metrics for the URL you’ve created, giving you valuable insights into how people are interacting with your content. You can also customize your tracking link to make it more memorable or to convey additional information about the content it points to.
How do I create a Google tracking URL?
To create a Google tracking URL:
Go to the Google Analytics URL Builder tool.
Fill in the required fields with relevant information, including website URL, campaign source, medium, term, and content.
Click “Generate URL” to create a unique tracking URL.
Copy the generated tracking URL and use it in your marketing materials.
Google tracking URLs help track campaign effectiveness and audience interaction to optimize marketing efforts and improve ROI.
What is the difference between a custom audience and a lookalike audience?
A custom audience is a group of individuals who have already engaged with your brand, such as existing customers or website visitors. A lookalike audience is a group of individuals who share similar characteristics with your custom audience but have not yet engaged with your brand.
In short, a custom audience is made up of people who are already familiar with your brand, while a lookalike audience is made up of people who are similar to your existing audience but may not be familiar with your brand yet. Lookalike audiences are often used in advertising to expand a brand’s reach to new potential customers who share similar characteristics to their existing customer base.
Hassaan Khan is a freelance writer for SAAS companies, e-commerce stores, and niche websites. He has contributed to SEMrush, ThriveGlobal, BloggingCage, AllBloggingTips, and several other publications.
He builds niche websites, publishes e-books, and helps website investors with his done-for-you niche site-building service.
In today’s digital age, having a strong online presence is crucial for businesses and individuals alike. Whether you’re a small business owner trying to reach new customers or a freelancer looking to showcase your work, your online presence can make or break your success.
So what exactly does it take to build a strong online presence? There are many factors to consider, from creating high-quality content to engaging with your audience on social media. But one area that’s often overlooked is link management.
Links are the currency of the internet, and managing your links effectively can have a huge impact on your online presence. Links not only help users navigate your website, but they also signal to search engines that your content is valuable and authoritative.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the role of link management in building a strong online presence. We’ll look at how links affect your website’s visibility and authority, and show you how to manage your links effectively for maximum impact. So if you’re ready to take your online presence to the next level, read on!
Link management refers to the process of organizing, tracking, and optimizing the links used in digital marketing campaigns. This includes managing links within websites, as well as links used in social media, email marketing, and other forms of online marketing.
Imagine you are a digital marketing strategist and your goal is to drive traffic to your website through various channels such as social media, email marketing, and online ads. To do this, you create different links that direct users to different pages on your website.
However, with so many links to manage, it can be challenging to keep track of which links are working effectively and which ones are not. This is where link management comes in.
Link management is like having a GPS system for your digital marketing campaign. It helps you navigate through the various channels, track your progress, and make adjustments along the way. With the right link management tool and strategies, you can optimize your links to improve your website’s search engine rankings, increase your click-through rates, and ultimately drive more conversions.
Why do companies need to use a link management tool?
E-commerce stores, affiliate marketers, and social media gurus need link management services to shorten the URLs, track clickability, and analyze conversion.
Bloggers and affiliate marketers do link management on the site level to make their affiliate product links look better.
So there are multiple reasons why a company needs a link management tool. Still, the crux is that nowadays, companies and influencers want to spearhead utilizing efficient tools as there is stiff competition in the market.
Popular URL shorteners allow users to generate short, branded URLs. It’s not rocket science. All you need is a URL shortener that flawlessly integrates with your website URL and helps you set up a short custom domain that is short and sweet.
It offers several features that don’t only make your long URLs shorter but also drive social media traffic to your website. The key features include bio links, branded URLs, lead generation, and retargeting.
Maximizing your online presence: Benefits of link management
Now you know what link management is and how companies and marketing experts utilize it to maximize social media output and organic traffic.
It’s time to head over to the benefits of link management to give you some perspective on what to expect from deploying a successful link management strategy.
Here are the benefits of link management:
1. Get statistical analytics
Statistics and data are crucial to any digital marketing campaign, especially when social media or online advertising is involved.
A huge benefit of link management is that it gives you access to the statistical analytics of your links. Once you’ve chosen a URL shortening tool and started using the short links, it must give you access to the statistics, such as:
Number of clicks on the URLs
It’s necessary to dive deep into the data to find out how many users clicked on the URLs. It doesn’t matter if you’re using a link management tool on social media or for affiliate links on the blog. The number of clicks on the links will determine how good yourcontent marketing strategy and keyword targeting are.
When a link management strategy is in place, it gives you insights into various elements that help you understand the type of website visitors or social media followers you’re gaining. The analytics provide you with user data on various parameters such as country, device, operating system, web browser, and search engine.
Run and monitor campaigns
Most URL shortening tools give you access to the clicks and source, so it helps you find out what specific campaign or source is sending you the most visitors. This would allow you to fine-tune your overall link strategy.
Branding is undeniably an important aspect of marketing. Not only does it sparks the brand’s creativity, but it also has a psychological angle to build a better online reputation.
Link management may have dozens of benefits, one of which is brand visibility. Here’s how short URLs do the trick:
Create branded URLs for a specific campaign
One of the perks of having a link management strategy is that you cancreate branded URLs for specific campaigns. Have you ever seen discount landing pages of brands? They often use short URLs and highlight the campaign names in short links.
Branded URLs improve trust to click the link
It’s been noticed that people don’t trust long URLs with parameters injected into them, and rightly so. Such long and funky URLs start to look suspicious. On the other hand, short and branded URLs show that the brand or the expert has taken the time to improve the URLs. Thus, most people are likely to trust such links.
Increases engagement
It’s unlikely that social media audiences click on random long URLs from random sites they come across on social media. Therefore, short and branded URLs could easilyincrease engagementon social media as they seem legit and trustworthy.
Well, there is a reason why companies like Amazon and others are making use of URL shorteners.
One of the reasons why short URLs could increase click-through rates and sales are that the links look clean and simple. On the other hand, website visitors get annoyed by links with suspicious brand names or random long URLs with many parameters attached to them.
However, it doesn’t happen on a whim. In fact, you would have to play smart to pull this off. There are certain ways to utilize short links to increase CTR and sales. Here are some of the areas where short links could come in handy:
Bio links offer a one-link solution to social media influencers. It lets you create a single-link custom landing page that displays all of your bio and social media channel links. The bio link goes into the Instagram, TikTok, or Twitter bio and lets people check out all social media links once they click on the bio link.
Turn your marketing around using deep links. It allows mass branding opportunities for companies, celebrities, and influencers. Directly place users at in-app locations to increase conversions, follows, likes, and subscribers without the need to log in to the app. The smart links can determine and identify browsers, operating systems, apps, etc., to provide seamless navigation. For example, if the app is not installed, then the deep link will navigate the user to complete the pre-requisite steps to reach the destination URL.
CreateQR codesfor their social media or website links. The purpose ofQR code marketing is to drive offline audiences to digital channels. For instance, QR codes could be printed on business cards or event invitations so that people scan them and find your web address or social media link.
Create and use custom CTAs, it provides an opportunity to display a pop-up CTA snippet when the end-user opens the URL. Suppose you grab a Forbes article, shorten the link, and share it on Twitter. When the audience would click the link and lands on the Forbes article, they’d also see a small pop-up snippet that could drive traffic back to your website.
When you’re using a short bio link generated through Replug, there are several reasons why it can improve your social media following. Let’s take a look at a few of them:
Cross-promote
The biggest benefit of a bio link is that you can cross-promote your social media accounts. Suppose you have more followers on Instagram as compared to Twitter. You can insert the Twitter profile link in the Instagram bio to let Instagram know that you’re active on Twitter as well. Or even better is that it also lets you create a custom landing page with multiple CTAs leading to your other socials and business pages.
It’s far better to useshort branded URLs than long and hefty URLs in the social media bio. People are likely to ignore those clunky links as they look suspicious, especially when they don’t know much about the user.
Increase engagement
Since you can use one link in the bio to showcase multiple social media links, it could get you more attention across different social media platforms. The reason is that more people would discover your other social media links when they click on the bio link.
No doubt, short URLs are easy to remember when people stumble upon them through blog posts or social media platforms. In fact, they’re recognizable when they’re seen on pamphlets or ad hoardings outdoors.
There is a reason why ad networks, affiliate companies, and e-commerce stores use short URLs. Moreover, several e-commerce businesses use custom short domains for their social media marketing so that their URLs don’t seem rubbish when shared on social media.
I did some testing with Replug URL shortener. I took an article link and shortened it, and tweeted it once.
Even though my Twitter engagement isn’t that great, I started seeing some clicks in Replug Analytics.
It made me realize two things. First, my Twitter following isn’t that dead. And the second is that Replug could generate extra traffic to my site just by using others’ content on social media after shortening the URL.
If you aren’t sure how short URLs from Replug can generate traffic from social media, then create a campaign in Replug, choose the campaign type as retargeting, and the widget as call-to-action (CTA).
Next is choosing the CTA type; you can go with a button, link, or form. Then, add a message headline, message body, CTA text, and link to drive traffic.
Once you have created this campaign in Replug, the next time you choose this campaign while shortening the URL, your pop-up call-to-action will appear every time someone clicks the short URL to visit the website page.
Let’s conclude!
Link management is crucial to your social media marketing campaign. Branded short URLs are real, and if you keep on ignoring these social media marketing tactics, your competitors might take advantage of them.
I’ve explained what link management is and how brands and entrepreneurs can benefit from them. Since Replug is the go-to link management tool for me, I plugged it in without any hesitation whatsoever.
If you’re serious about social media, branding, and driving traffic to your website, then pay close attention to link management or short branded URLs. It could skyrocket your social media (website) traffic within a few months.
FAQs
What is branded link management?
Branded link management is the practice of creating, managing, and tracking branded links for digital marketing campaigns. Branded links are shortened URLs that contain your brand name or a relevant keyword, making them more memorable and recognizable to your audience.
Can I use branded links on social media?
Yes, branded links can be used on social media platforms to promote your brand and drive traffic to your website. However, it’s important to comply with each platform’s guidelines and best practices for link sharing.
Why is link management important?
Effective link management is important for improving website traffic, search engine rankings, and overall campaign performance. By tracking and optimizing links, businesses can increase click-through rates, reduce bounce rates, and improve conversion rates.
Hassaan Khan is a freelance writer for SAAS companies, e-commerce stores, and niche websites. He has contributed to SEMrush, ThriveGlobal, BloggingCage, AllBloggingTips, and several other publications.
He builds niche websites, publishes e-books, and helps website investors with his done-for-you niche site-building service.
Vanity URLs are a valuable tool for branding, marketing, and tracking efforts and can help to improve the overall user experience.
This quick guide will teach you how to create a vanity URL in just a few simple steps and explain what making a vanity URL entails.
Let’s begin!
Vanity URLs: how do you set them up?
Creating a vanity URL can make it easier to remember a web address and can also build brand consistency. To create a vanity URL, you can either use a link management tool or a content management system (CMS).
A link management tool is a standalone platform that specializes in creating custom short links. You simply enter the long URL you want to shorten, and the tool generates a vanity URL.
A CMS, on the other hand, is a platform used to manage the content of a website. Some CMSs’ have built-in redirect functionality, but others may require a redirect plugin to create a vanity URL. To use a CMS to create a vanity URL, you would set up a redirect from the custom short link to the longer, original URL.
In either case, a vanity URL can be easily shared and is a useful tool for branding and marketing.
Vanity URLs can be tracked and measured, enabling businesses to gain a deeper understanding of their campaigns.
A link management tool can allow for the creation of multiple vanity URLs, making it easier to manage multiple campaigns and track their performance.
Boost your marketing with Replug’s vanity URL builder
By using Replug’s vanity URL builder, businesses can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their marketing efforts, increase click-through rates, and drive more traffic to their website.
Here’s how you can create a vanity URL using Replug:
Step 1: Sign in to Replug or create an account for free.
Step 2:Once you’re on the main Replug dashboard, simply enter the long URL in the bar under “Quickly Shorten your link”:
Step 3: Click on the blue arrow button to autogenerate your vanity URL using Replug:
Step 4: Your vanity URL will be generated. You can customize the URL slug using the edit icon to fit your needs:
Step 5: Save and share your shortened, memorable link:
To make your vanity URL more clickable using Replug, follow these steps:
Choose a short and memorable vanity URL: The shorter the URL, the easier it will be for your audience to remember and click on it.
Use a relevant keyword: Use keywords relevant to the content behind the link so people know what they’re clicking on.
Use a recognizable brand name: If your brand has a recognizable name, use it in your vanity URL to build trust and make it more recognizable.
Create a custom domain: Replug allows you to create a custom domain for your short links, which can make your links look more professional and increase clicks.
Add a call-to-action (CTA): Adding a CTA to your vanity URL can encourage people to click on it. For example, “Click here to learn more” or “Get your discount now”.
Use UTM parameters: Utilize UTM parameters to track the performance of your links and make data-driven decisions about future link campaigns.
Test and iterate: Test your vanity URL and track its performance to see what’s working and what’s not. Make changes and improvements based on the data you collect.
Shorten your links, amplify your brand.
Create shareable, trackable and fully customizable branded urls. Get more clicks with absolute link management features such as Bio Links, retargeting, deep Links, CTA’s and more.
Arslan is a SaaS content marketer who crafts clear, engaging content that drives results. He simplifies complex ideas into easily understandable blog posts, landing pages, and emails, helping SaaS companies connect with their audience and grow.
Shortening a LinkedIn URL can make it easier to share and remember, especially if the original URL is long and complex. It can also make it more visually appealing and professional-looking, which can help to increase click-through rates.
Additionally, using a shortened URL can help to track clicks and engagement on the link, which can be helpful for analytics and marketing purposes.
How to shorten LinkedIn URLs directly on LinkedIn?
Step 1: Open your LinkedIn profile and click the profile icon in the top right.
Step 2: Click view profile from the drop-down menu to open your profile.
Step 3: Click edit public profile & URL from the right side menu.
Step 4: Click the edit icon under edit your custom URL menu.
Step 5:Type the URL you want for your LinkedIn and click save.
How to shorten LinkedIn URLs with a URL shortener?
Replug is a link management platform that allows users to shorten, brand, and track links. Follow the steps below to shorten your LinkedIn URL using Replug:
Step 1: Sign in to Replug or create an account for free.
Step 2: Select the desired campaign on the main dashboard or create a new one in a few seconds.
Step 3:Paste your LinkedIn URL in the “URL to shorten” tab under the campaign and click create.
Step 4: Your new LinkedIn URL will be created. Click the edit icon and customize your URL slug.
Step 5: Once done customizing the LinkedIn URL click the update button, and you’re done.
An important point to note:
The image above shows that Replug offers many insightful features with a URL shortener. If you shorten URLs with Replug, you have access to these features, increasing your marketing efforts’ effectiveness.
Why use Replug to shorten your Linkedin URL?
Replug is a link management platform that allows users to shorten, brand, and track their links. Using Replug to shorten a LinkedIn URL, users can use the platform’s features, such as link branding and tracking.
Link branding allows users to customize the appearance of the shortened URL by replacing the default “replug.link” with a custom domain name that aligns with their brand.
The tracking feature allows users to track clicks, location, and other engagement metrics on the link, which can be useful for understanding how the link is being used and who is engaging with it. This data can help users optimize their marketing and outreach efforts.
Additionally, Replug provides the feature of retargeting, by which users can retarget the people who clicked the link, which can be very useful for sales and marketing teams.
Can we shorten the LinkedIn URL on the LinkedIn mobile app?
LinkedIn does not offer a built-in feature to shorten URLs on the mobile app. However, there are third-party link-shortening services that you can use to shorten a LinkedIn profile URL.
Examples of these services include Replug, Bitly, TinyURL, and Rebrandly. Simply enter the LinkedIn profile URL into the service, and it will generate a shorter version of the link that you can share.
Arslan is a SaaS content marketer who crafts clear, engaging content that drives results. He simplifies complex ideas into easily understandable blog posts, landing pages, and emails, helping SaaS companies connect with their audience and grow.
From content marketers to programming developers, Open AI (specially Chat GPT) has taken the world by storm.
Some of you might be aware of the Open AI Playground or afraid of it (Really!! You got to be kidding).
Though, this technology can be fairly new to many of us. So you don’t need to fret as I’ll make this read as simple as I can so that you can even make the kindergarten kids understand about it without any complexities.
Sit back, enjoy a cup of coffee, tea or any favorite drink along with a snack and learn about what the OpenAI future beholds.
The evolution of OpenAI
Since its launch, OpenAI has made significant contributions to the field of artificial intelligence.
In 2016, the organization released the OpenAI Gym, a toolkit for developing and comparing reinforcement learning algorithms.
In 2017, OpenAI introduced the OpenAI Bot, a machine learning model capable of defeating professional players in the video game Dota 2. This was considered a major breakthrough in the field of AI, as it demonstrated the ability of machines to perform complex tasks that were previously thought to be the exclusive domain of humans.
In 2018, OpenAI introduced GPT-2, a natural language processing model that was able to generate human-like text. This model was able to complete tasks such as language translation, question answering, and summarization with remarkable accuracy. GPT-2 was considered to be a major advancement in the field of natural language processing, and it was used to develop a variety of applications such as chatbots, language assistants, and automated writing tools.
In 2020, OpenAI released GPT-3, an even more advanced natural language processing model that was able to generate text that was almost indistinguishable from text written by humans. GPT-3 was capable of performing a wide range of natural language processing tasks, such as language translation, text summarization, and question answering, with remarkable accuracy. This model was also used to develop a variety of applications such as chatbots, language assistants, and automated writing tools.
The common questions about Open AI, GPT 3 & GPT 4:
What is OpenAI?
OpenAI is an artificial intelligence research laboratory consisting of the for-profit OpenAI LP and its parent company, the non-profit OpenAI Inc.
Who founded OpenAI?
It was founded in December 2015 by Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, Wojciech Zaremba and several other entrepreneurs. The goal of OpenAI is to develop and promote friendly AI in a way that benefits humanity as a whole.
Is OpenAI owned by Elon Musk?
OpenAI was co-founded by Elon Musk, but he is no longer directly involved with the organization.
Who funds OpenAI?
OpenAI is primarily funded by a group of private investors, including Sam Altman, Ilya Sutskever, Greg Brockman, and Wojciech Zaremba.
Who is the godfather of AI?
The “Godfather of AI” is a title that has been given to several people, including John McCarthy, who coined the term “artificial intelligence” in 1955.
What is OpenAI used for?
OpenAI is used for research and development in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Is OpenAI going to take your jobs?
Chamath Palihapitiya is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian and American venture capitalist, engineer, SPAC sponsor, founder and CEO of Social Capital. In his all-in Podcast, Chamath compared openAI to that of ingredients at the grocery store. He believes that the real opportunity is going to be for those entrepreneurs and investors who know how to take the ingredients and create their own special meal and instead of looking at OpenAI from a fearful perspective, look at it as a real opportunity to make serious money.
You can listen to his opinion in the below video.
Furthermore, below are some screenshots of a LinkedIn poll & discussion initiated by CEO of ContentStudio and Co-founder of Usermaven & Replug on the fear of AI replacing your SaaS tool or service. Despite, the poll is showing a high percentage of responses, with the fear of AI replacing SaaS tools or a service but the comments state otherwise. Here’s my take on the matter. Now we are done clearing that AI is not taking your jobs. Let’s move on further to learn more about OpenAI.
OpenAI playground is a web-based platform that allows users to interact with OpenAI’s models and generate text, music, and other content. It is currently free to use, but some features may require a subscription .
How do you get to the OpenAI playground?
The OpenAI playground can be accessed through the OpenAI website.
What does Elon Musk think of OpenAI?
Here is a video that shares views of Elon Musk about AI.
What is the world’s strongest AI?
It’s difficult to say which AI is currently the “strongest”, as it depends on the specific task or application. OpenAI’s GPT-3 is currently one of the most advanced language processing AI models.
What is GPT?
GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is a type of language model developed by OpenAI. It is a neural network-based model that is trained on a large dataset of text data to predict the next word in a sentence or a prompt given to it. GPT-1, GPT-2, GPT-3 are versions of this model that were released in 2018, 2019 and 2020 respectively . GPT models are known for their ability to generate human-like text, complete tasks such as translation, summarization, and question answering and also perform well on certain language understanding tasks.
What is Chat GPT?
ChatGPT is a variation of the GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) language model developed by OpenAI, that has been fine-tuned for conversational and chatbot applications. It is trained on a large dataset of conversational text, allowing it to generate human-like responses to prompts in a conversational context. It can be used to answer questions, provide information, and perform other language-based tasks.
GPT-3 is currently one of the most advanced language processing AI models, but it’s not the most powerful AI overall.
Is GPT-4 coming?
There’s not any official statement yet about GPT-4 coming, but it’s expected to be launched in 2023.
Can OpenAI generate images?
OpenAI can generate images using its DALL-E model.
Can OpenAI write code?
OpenAI can generate code snippets using its models, but it’s not a code generation tool.
Is Python an OpenAI?
Python is a programming language that can be used to interact with OpenAI’s API, but it’s not an OpenAI product .
Is OpenAI an API?
OpenAI offers a platform through its API, enabling developers to utilize its state-of-the-art models to generate text, music, and other forms of content.
How to use ChatGPT to build business ideas, websites & personal projects?
In the video below, Adrian Twarog shares his expertise on utilizing OpenAI’s ChatGPT platform to create and sell a successful business. Further, he ‘ll explain how to utilize ChatGPT and its models to achieve your goals .
URL shortening is the process of taking a long URL and converting it into a shorter, more manageable link. ChatGPT-4 can be used to generate link previews, which can be very useful in making the user experience more seamless.
For example, when a user shares a link on social media, ChatGPT-4 can be used to generate a short preview of the link’s contents, such as a title and a brief summary. This can help the user to determine whether the link is relevant to their interests before clicking on it, and can also make the link more appealing and engaging to potential viewers.
In addition to URL shortening, ChatGPT-4 can also be used to enhance the functionality of link in bio and social media management tools. Link in bio tools allow users to include a single clickable link in their bio on platforms such as Instagram, where hyperlinking is not possible within posts.
ChatGPT can be used to generate compelling descriptions of the linked content, making it more likely that users will click on the link.
Social media management tools can also benefit from ChatGPT-4 by using it to generate captions, and hashtags while scheduling posts, which can increase engagement and reach. ChatGPT-4 can be used to analyze and generate insights from large amounts of data in analytics tools . ChatGPT-4 can be trained to understand the context of social media posts and comments, allowing it to extract valuable insights such as sentiment analysis and demographics. This can help digital marketers to better understand their audience and tailor their campaigns accordingly.
What to expect of OpenAI & Chat GPT4 in 2023 and beyond?
There are loads of rumors floating related to OpenAI & GPT4. What we certainly know is that, in terms of model size sparsity, optimality and alignment, GPT-4 will be far more powerful than its predecessors. Furthermore, it will remain as a text model, so it’s safe to say, it will not be a multi model. It was also revealed that OpenAI’s current technology does not possess Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), meaning the capability to acquire knowledge and skills comparable to those of a human being, but its in the plans.
In September 2022, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, in a podcast interview (AI for the Next Era) discussed the future of AI technology.
“I think we’ll get multimodal models in not that much longer, and that’ll open up new things. I think people are doing amazing work with agents that can use computers to do things for you, use programs and this idea of a language interface where you say a natural language, what you want in this kind of dialogue back and forth. You can iterate and refine it, and the computer just does it for you. You see some of this with DALL-E and CoPilot in very early ways.”
“We’ll try to do it, other people will try to do it … It’s a legitimate research project. It could be pretty soon; it could take a while.”
In the same interview, when asked about will ChatGPT kill Google?, Altman said,
“I think whenever someone talks about a technology being the end of some other giant company, it’s usually wrong. I think people forget they get to make a countermove here, and they’re like pretty smart, pretty competent. I do think there’s a change for search that will probably come at some point — but not as dramatically as people think in the short term.”
With respect to the threats of AI plagiarism and affecting education of students, Sam Altman stated:
“We’re just in a new world now. Generated text is something we all need to adapt to, and that’s fine. We adapted to calculators and changed what we tested in maths class, I imagine. This is a more extreme version of that, no doubt. But also the benefits of it are more extreme as well.”
Furthermore, OpenAI & Chat GPT4 is going to provide a wealth of opportunities for businesses looking to improve their operations and customer experiences. For example, chatbots, voice agents, automated news writing, and even creative writing.
Some areas where OpenAI’s research and development may have a significant impact include:
Natural Language Processing (NLP): OpenAI’s GPT-3 model has set new benchmarks in the field of NLP and has shown the potential of AI-powered language generation and understanding.
Robotics and Automation: OpenAI’s research in reinforcement learning and robotics could lead to the development of more advanced and capable robotic systems in the future.
Healthcare: OpenAI’s research in AI-based drug discovery, medical diagnosis, and Optometry Medical Billing Services could help accelerate the development of new treatments and improve patient outcomes.
Climate change: OpenAI also works on machine learning models that can help in tackling climate change by providing accurate predictions and insights.
AI safety: OpenAI is also actively researching the safety and ethical implications of AI, which could help ensure that these technologies are developed and used responsibly in the future.
In conclusion, OpenAI’s advanced language models like ChatGPT-4 can have a significant impact on various digital marketing tools such as URL shortening, link in bio, social media management, and analytics tools. These models can help to improve the user experience, increase engagement, and provide valuable insights for marketers. As the field of AI continues to evolve, we can expect to see more and more applications for these models in various industries.
Short links have several benefits when sharing on social media platforms. They are more visually pleasing and take up less space, making them perfect for platforms where space is limited. Additionally, their simpler and shorter structure makes them easier to remember and share verbally.
A URL shortener can also hide the original link behind a redirect, which can track clicks and keep the original link concealed. Furthermore, short URLs are much simpler and more convenient to share, especially via email or chat.
A short link can also be a great way to disguise a long and complex link with a more user-friendly and memorable domain name. This can increase click-through rates, making the link more likely to be clicked.
A URL shortener is a service that condenses a long URL into a shorter, more manageable version. The shortened URL version often redirects to the original URL when clicked. These shortened URLs are often used to share links on social media platforms, with a limit on how many characters can be included in a post. URL shorteners also track links’ clicks and make links more visually appealing. For example, a long and complex URL like “https://www.example.com/category/subcategory/product-name” can be shortened to “http://example.com/abc,” which is short and easy to remember.
Can we shorten a Google Doc link?
Unfortunately, Google has terminated its URL shortening service “goo.gl ”. Another way is to use third-party URL shortener services like bit.ly, Replug, etc.
You can use these services by pasting the google docs link and getting the shortened link in return.
It’s important to note that shortening a link does not give you additional security, but it can help make the link more friendly and memorable and track clicks.
Arslan is a SaaS content marketer who crafts clear, engaging content that drives results. He simplifies complex ideas into easily understandable blog posts, landing pages, and emails, helping SaaS companies connect with their audience and grow.
Long links can be unattractive and difficult to share, especially on social media platforms with a character limit. What if I tell you that you can hide these long links with branded short links? Shortened links are easier to include in emails, text messages, or social media posts, especially with a character limit.
Additionally, many URL shorteners have built-in tracking features for measuring the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and, secondly, for understanding how users interact with a website.
Let’s choose a URL shortener service that meets your needs and show you how to hide a link.
How to hide a link with Replug?
Step 1: Sign in to Replug or create an account.
Step 2: Choose a campaign from the main dashboard or create one.
Step 4: Your newly created link will appear. Click the edit icon and rename the URL slug to whatever you prefer.
Step 6: Click the Update button once you’ve entered your new link, and you’re done.
Note: Navigate to the Manage section on the main dashboard and click Replug Links to access your disguised link.
It’s worth noting that many URL shortening services allow you to customize the shortened link to make it more aesthetically pleasing or memorable. But, Replug also provides tracking features that allow you to see how many clicks the link has received.
FAQs
What is cloaking a link?
Link cloaking is a technique to redirect a website visitor to a different page than the one they clicked on. This can be done for various reasons, such as tracking clicks, shortening long URLs, or hiding the link’s destination from the user. The link the user clicks on is called the “cloaked” link, and it redirects to the actual destination of the link, called the “real” link. When link cloaking is used, the user is usually unaware that they have been redirected, and the real link remains hidden.
What are password-protected links?
Password-protected links require users to enter a password before accessing the link’s content. These links can restrict access to certain content or pages on a website to only those with the password.
Arslan is a SaaS content marketer who crafts clear, engaging content that drives results. He simplifies complex ideas into easily understandable blog posts, landing pages, and emails, helping SaaS companies connect with their audience and grow.
Have you ever seen someone’s tweet with a short and sweet custom URL? Chances are high, you have seen a short link in a tweet – brands and entrepreneurs have different link shorteners for Twitter.
Are you surprised? Why so much effort on Twitter?
Well, it’s one of the top-tier social media platforms with approximately 450 million monthly active users, enough to put some light on this platform.
The easiest way to validate a social media strategy is to look at the social media influencers and top brands – if they’re following the same tactic or something similar, you have the answer.
Got a question for you!
Why did you join Twitter?
Here are the possible answers:
Establish a community around yourself or your brand
Find prospective customers
Drive the audience to your website
Improve your brand positioning
Well, you could double-down on these things if you use the link shortening on Twitter the right way.
Interested in how to pull this off?
Keep reading the article!
Why need to shorten links for tweets?
If you’re wondering what good can come out of putting all this effort into shortening the URLs for Twitter, then you need to dig into the reasons why you need short URLs for tweets:
1. User-friendly structure for links
Short links are more trustworthy than long and clunky links on social media. The problem with long links is that they usually contain several parameters to track visitors’ browser, location, referral source, etc.
Links on social media platforms should be short and sweet. Unfortunately, even though Twitter shortens the URL using its native URL shortener, it doesn’t provide any tracking data. Therefore, it’s not helpful from a digital marketing standpoint.
There are so many reasons why brands opt for shortening their links on social media, but user-friendliness is surely one of them. Nobody wants to put out links that scare people away.
Take a look at the tweet from Michael Hyatt:
Not only did they structure their tweet perfectly, but he also used a short, clean URL to direct people to the right page.
2. Avoid long and spammy look
The URL length has been a hot debate on social media, especially when sharing content on Twitter. Regular, long URLs don’t fit in, and Twitter mostly hides the second half of the URL depending on the tweet’s length.
It’s true that such long and clunky URLs sometimes look spammy. Therefore, new followers mostly hesitate to click on the long URLs. A URL shortening tool is a great solution for coming up with short URLs for sharing on social media.
You might find a lot of bloggers and social media gurus using long blog post URLs on Twitter.
Here’s a quick example:
Barry Schwartz is a search engine marketing expert who monitors search engines and their algorithm updates.
3. Increase clickability on the links
One of the perks of using short links is that it could increase clicks on your tweets. Since people don’t always trust long URLs, disguising the links often does the job. If you haven’t had a chance to experiment with short URLs, then you have to try it out.
As far as increasing the clickability on tweets, it’s been noticed that a precise caption with a short link is the perfect combo for getting more clicks on Twitter or social media in general.
I stumbled upon an impressive tweet.
Take a look:
So the chances to get clicks on this branded URL are more than any random URL. This could be a solid reason to try out short links for Twitter. The more people click on your tweets, the better the Twitter converts for you.
I came across Techcrunch’s tweet, look what I noticed:
This giant online tech publication uses short branded URLs for social media. The thing is that when top experts or brands are using tactics, it gives others permission to adopt the strategy and play with it.
5. Keep track of clicks on the links
The worst thing about putting out links on Twitter would be consistent publishing without tracking the links’ clickability.
Most bloggers and entrepreneurs who focus on Twitter often share blog posts and YouTube videos to capitalize on the opportunities, but most don’t track the links’ performance.
URL shortening allows these users to generate trackable URLs. These short URLs could be for all the blog posts or website pages.
The benefit is that you could find out which of your tweets outperform others from a clickability standpoint. It could also hint at the type of content that’s getting more traction on Twitter. You could always double-down on that content to leverage the Twitter platform.
Which link shortener is the best?
You’ve just read five reasons why you should use short links for Twitter. There are number of good link shorteners available in the market such as Bitly, Rebrandly, Pixelme etc.
But if you are looking for something that provides you value for money and includes all the top features then you should definitely check out Replug.
Replug is the best link shortener and a powerful tool that provides so many facilities for marketers, social media experts, and bloggers. The best part is that it’s not just a URL shortener. Instead, it’s an all in one link management, click tracking, and retargeting solution.
One of the Replug features is bio links. It’s a one-link solution to create social media bio links for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. The benefit of using the bio links feature is that it lets you generate a single-link custom landing page that showcases all of your social media channel links.
Replug lets you create branded URLs for specific campaigns. Some brands use branded short URLs and highlight the campaign names in those short links. No doubt that branded URLs improve audience trust to click on the links. Perhaps, long and funky URLs look suspicious, and rightly so. Most scammers use malicious codes on certain website pages, and their URLs don’t look trustworthy at all. Therefore, short branded URLs depict the brand’s effort to improve the URLs. Thus, most website visitors are likely to trust their links.
Deep links
One of the features of Replug is deep links. Deep links navigate users to an app instead of a website or an app store. Such links are used to send users straight to specific in-app locations to increase conversions or improve user experience. In addition, these are smart links that can determine and identify browsers, operating systems, and apps to provide seamless navigation without wasting any time.
Retargeting visitors
Retargeting pixel is a snippet of code added to your website. The purpose of this embedded code is to identify the tailored audiences. It allows advertisers to target the people who have visited your landing page or website. So Replug can configure retargeting pixels of social media platforms for your businesses.
UTM parameter is a popular referral traffic tracking system that adds a slug in the URL. It makes it easier for businesses to track website visitors and identify traffic sources. It is quite useful when you’ve set up a social media campaign and applied several social media traffic tactics at once and want to know which one is outperforming others. A UTM parameter could also come in handy in the lead generation process.
Custom audience building
One of the benefits of the Replug platform is that it allows users to build a custom audience. A custom audience is a group of audiences that have visited your website before and become reachable through online advertising across multiple social media and ad networks. The custom audience is primarily built to retarget the audience through online advertising. The process begins with getting a pixel code from the social media platform and placing it into the website source code. Replug allows you to build a custom audience through short URLs.
QR code marketing
Replug has a QR code generator to let marketers and businesses create QR codes for their social media or website links. The purpose behind QR code marketing is to drive offline audiences to digital channels. Moreover, QR codes could be printed on business cards or event invitations so that people scan them and find your web address or social media link.
Short URLs analytics
Analytics data is vital to understanding the success of any social media or online marketing campaign. Replug Analytics gives you a deep dive into the clicks on the short URLs. Plus, you could analyze the conversion rate from each short link you generate through Replug. Just make sure that you have properly configured the Replug.
CTA’s to increase website traffic
When users shorten links using the URL shortener, it also allows users to display a pop-up CTA snippet when the end-user clicks on the URL and lands on the destination page. For example, suppose you grab an Entrepreneur.com article, shorten the link, and share it on Twitter. Then, when visitors click the link and land on a specific article, they’ll also see a small pop-up snippet. Clicking the CTA drives traffic back to your website.
How do you shorten a link for Twitter?
Twitter does have its own t.co Twitter URL shortener – it’s part of the Twitter platform or service, but it can’t be used as a standalone URL shortener.
Any links shared on Twitter, whether they’re tweets or DMs, Twitter will automatically process and shorten to a t.co link. Clicking these links will navigate to the destination URL.
However, there is no link tracking nor bio link features available with Twitter link shortener. To keep track of your short URLs on Twitter, you need to try out a third-party twitter link shortener.
Can I still use a Replug URL shortener to shorten links?
Even though Twitter uses its own t.co URL shortener, you could still use Replug. Plus, you could easily shorten your links for Twitter or other social media platforms using Replug.
Shortening Twitter links using Replug
Twitter URL shortening isn’t as difficult as it may sound. However, a little bit of technical knowledge can help you get over the line. Since Replug is a fantastic URL shortener, it could be used to generate short URLs for Twitter.
Here’s you can set up your URL shortening for Twitter using Replug:
1: Sign up for a Replug account
The process begins with signing up for a Twitter Link shortener. Replug is an all-in-one URL shortener tool that doesn’t only create short URLs for you, but also provides you with branded links.
Moreover, it’s an excellent Bitly alternative tool that could also drive social media traffic to your website, meaning you can also drive a social media audience to your website.
2: Generate short URLs for Twitter
After setting up your account. Create brand and URL shortener campaign. Then copy the Twiiter URL and paste it in the relevant fields. Then complete the required steps to generate short URLs for Twitter.
3: Track short URLs for Twitter
Short link tracking is crucial to the whole process of Twitter management. No doubt, analytics play a vital role in any digital marketing campaign. You may have heard about click-through rate, lead generation, and conversion optimization. All these metrics won’t be possible to record if the click tracking isn’t in place.
Replug is link shortener for twitter as well as for other social platforms. Thus, you can track your short URL’s performance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram,Youtube etc.
Ready to take Twitter marketing seriously? No doubt Twitter is inevitable when it comes to social media marketing, and so is shortening Twitter links.
Sure, the key to winning on Twitter isn’t putting out loads of links on the platform. Instead, it could also be tweets, replies, or retweets.
When you take start Twitter engagements, build relationships, and share content, you notice that there is a lot of potential on Twitter, and you can cash in on the opportunities.
Whether you’re a startup that needs to generate leads on their website or a blogger who wants to drive people to their blog posts. It doesn’t matter. The links in the tweets would play a critical role.
Therefore, it was necessary to discuss link shortening for Twitter so that many of you could figure out Twitter link shortening.
Plus, it was essential to share why short URLs matter for Twitter and what benefits the Replug URL shortener brings to the table.
Hassaan Khan is a freelance writer for SAAS companies, e-commerce stores, and niche websites. He has contributed to SEMrush, ThriveGlobal, BloggingCage, AllBloggingTips, and several other publications.
He builds niche websites, publishes e-books, and helps website investors with his done-for-you niche site-building service.
Did you know that a branded URL shortener can increase click-through rates by up to 39%? That’s right! By creating custom, shortened links that include your brand name or relevant keywords, you can make your links more memorable, visually appealing, and most importantly, drive more traffic to your website.
Using branded URL shorteners can help enhance brand awareness, increase engagement with your audience, and establish a consistent look and feel across all of your marketing communications.
In this article, we’ll explore how you can use branded URL shorteners to achieve these goals and improve your online presence. Whether you’re using social media, email marketing, or offline marketing, incorporating branded links into your digital marketing strategy is an effective way to stand out from the crowd and make a lasting impression on your audience. So, let’s dive in and discover the power of a branded URL shortener!
What is a branded link?
A branded link is a shortened URL containing a custom domain name, which reinforces a brand’s identity and creates a more professional and trustworthy appearance for the shared links.
When you share a link on the internet, it can sometimes be very long and difficult to remember. However, a company can make its links even better by using its own unique name as part of the link.
For example, instead of using a generic shortener, a company like “Your Company Name” can use a custom domain name like “link.yourcompanyname.com” to create a branded link that people will remember and associate with their company.
Here’s an example:
The original long URL is:
And after applying the branded URL shortener, it could turn into something like this:
Branded links are made up of 3 components:
Domain: Your unique brand name. e.g. cstu (a shorter version) for the ContentStudio.
Top-level domain (TLD): The top-level domain is the suffix at the end of the domain name, such as .com, .io, .org, or .net. Companies can choose the TLD that best represents their brand and their goals.
URL slug: Slug is part of the web address that comes after the domain name and identifies a specific page or resource on a website. For example, in the above-shortened URL “cstu.io/content-marketing-hacks”, the slug is “content-marketing-hacks”.
Building trust and credibility with custom branded URLs – 6 strategies
Do you want to increase your brand’s visibility and recognition? If so, you’re in the right place. Branded URLs are a simple but powerful tool that can make your links more memorable, trackable, and engaging.
We’ll explore six proven strategies for using branded URLs, so you can start building a stronger brand today.
2. Use click data to refine your social media strategy
One of the biggest advantages of branded URLs is the ability to track clicks and gather valuable data about your audience.
Some URL shorteners track the links themselves:
Replug provides an excellent example of this. With Replug, you can easily track the number of clicks on your links, monitor where the links have been shared and analyze how other Replug-shortened links are contributing to the traffic for the same content.
Use Replug’s tracking abilities to gain insights into your audience’s behavior and preferences, and use this information to optimize your marketing campaigns over time.
Slug customization is an essential component of creating branded links that reflect your brand’s style and personality. By using branded slugs, you can establish your brand’s presence online and increase your brand awareness.
Replug’s customization options allow you to create short and memorable slugs that align with your brand’s identity, making it easier for your audience to remember your links and associate them with your brand.
Before customization:
After customization:
Whether you’re sharing links via email, social media, or other channels, customizing your slugs with Replug can help you elevate your brand’s visibility and recognition.
Video marketing is one of the most effective ways to build brand awareness and recognition, and adding a branded URL to your videos can help drive traffic to your site and increase your visibility.
Fortunately, with a link shortener, online destinations can become much easier to remember. By creating a new, abbreviated link, you can create a more memorable and effective call-to-action for your audience.
Email marketing can be an effective way to connect with your audience and promote your brand, but standing out in a crowded inbox can be a challenge. Using shortened URLs in plain-text emails can enhance your email marketing efforts by making links more memorable and creating a polished, professional appearance.
By customizing your links with a URL shortener like Replug, you can align them with your brand’s identity and track their performance.
Here’s an example:
Incorporating shortened URLs is a simple yet powerful way to improve your email marketing results and increase your brand’s visibility.
6. Transform your print pieces into lead generators with branded URLs
Add a shortened URL to your print marketing materials, like flyers or brochures, that directs potential clients to a landing page or specific content on your website. By doing so, you make it easy for your audience to engage with your brand, while also tracking the effectiveness of your print marketing efforts.
For example, instead of listing just your contact information, use a shortened URL like “realestateagent.com/offer” that leads to a landing page with a form for potential clients to fill out. This way, they can easily become a lead and you can monitor the effectiveness of your print marketing campaigns.
With shortened URLs, you can easily turn passersby into leads and improve the ROI of your print marketing efforts.
Elevate your marketing strategy with Replug’s branded CTAs and links
Are you tired of using generic URL shorteners that do nothing for your brand identity? Look no further than Replug – the ultimate all-in-one solution for elevating your marketing strategy.
With Replug’s branded CTAs and links, you can create memorable, unique links that reflect your brand’s style and personality. And that’s not all – Replug’s features such as UTMs, bio links, deep links, and retargeting take your marketing efforts to the next level.
With robust analytics and a user-friendly interface, Replug makes it easy to track your links’ performance and see how they contribute to your brand awareness and recognition. So why settle for less when you can use Replug to supercharge your marketing game?
Unleash the full potential of your links with Replug’s advanced tools
From UTM parameters to bio links and beyond, Replug’s advanced tools will help you get the most out of every link you share. Let’s take a closer look at some of the key features and how they can benefit your brand.
UTMs: Use Replug to track & analyze your campaigns with ease
Automatically track every UTM parameter, so you know where your traffic is coming from.
With UTM tracking, you can easily track the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns by adding UTM parameters to your shortened links. This way, you can see which campaigns are generating the most clicks, conversions, and revenue.
Bio Links: Optimize your Instagram presence with Replug’s bio link feature
Optimize your Instagram bio with a landing page that links to all your content.
Bio link pages are a powerful way to drive traffic from your social media profiles to multiple destinations, all with just one link. You can add all your important links like websites, social media accounts, and other landing pages in one place.
Deep Links: Drive more traffic & engagement with Replug’s deep linking feature
Direct users to specific content within your app, improving user experience and engagement.
With Replug’s deep linking feature, you can send your audience to a specific page or section within your website, mobile app, or even third-party pages.
A branded URL shortener is a tool that allows you to shorten your long, complex links into short, easy-to-remember links that reflect your brand’s name or domain. It enables you to create custom branded links for your online content, which can improve brand awareness, credibility, and trust.
What is a bio link, and how can it benefit my Instagram presence?
A bio link is a link that you can add to your Instagram bio section to drive traffic to your website or other online content. Replug’s bio link feature allows you to optimize your Instagram presence by creating a customizable bio link that contains multiple links to your online content, social media profiles, and other relevant resources. This feature can help you increase your website traffic, social media followers, and customer engagement.
How does Replug’s retargeting feature work?
Replug’s retargeting feature allows you to retarget your website visitors who clicked on your shortened links. It works by adding a tracking pixel to your links, which allows you to track the visitors and display your ads to them on various online platforms. This feature can help you increase conversion rates, ROI, and customer engagement.
How can Replug’s deep linking feature drive more traffic and engagement?
Replug’s deep linking feature allows you to create links that point to a specific page or section of your website, instead of the homepage. This feature enables you to provide a more personalized user experience and drive more targeted traffic to your website. It also helps you increase engagement and reduce bounce rates by directing users to the content they are interested in.
Why is it important to use custom domains for my links?
Using custom domains for your links can help you build trust and brand awareness with your audience. It makes your links look more professional, credible, and memorable. Custom domains also allow you to track and analyze your link performance more effectively, which can help you improve your marketing strategy and increase your ROI.
Can I track the performance of my branded links?
Yes, most branded URL shorteners come with tracking and analytics features that allow you to monitor the performance of your links. You can track metrics such as clicks, location, and device type to get a better understanding of how your links are performing.
Yes, investing in a branded URL shortener can be worth it, especially if you’re looking to increase brand awareness and credibility. Branded links also make it easier for users to remember and share your links, which can help drive more traffic to your website.
Sadia Umer works on putting together high-quality content for Replug customers to read. When she isn't writing, she can be found reading and trying random life experiments.
With the recent influx of new users, we saw a huge increase in traffic on the URL shortener which led to downtimes during the peak traffic.
To tackle this problem, we have scaled our infrastructure, which is now auto-scalable, capable of serving up to 50,000 requests per minute.
Alongside, we added an uptime monitoring so that you can monitor the system status: https://rplg.co/05ebdd30
Custom Domain Registration and Encrypt SSL
We have updated the infrastructure of our system. This helps you to avoid any kind of custom domain registration errors.
Once you have added your domain to the platform, the next step is to point CNAME in your domain registrar’s DNS. If you would like to redirect your root domain, please try adding @ or www. Some of the registrars do not allow the @ option, for that you will have to add www as a HOST value.
CNAME – Canonical Name: rplg.co
HOST: @ or www
However, if there is a working website on your root domain, we recommend using a subdomain such as links.yourdomain.com or track.yourdomain.com. Then follow the convention below.
CNAME – Canonical Name: rplg.co
HOST: links or track or (whatever subdomain name you)
If you don’t want to use a subdomain, you should use a different domain that doesn’t have any website working on its root URL.
IMPORTANT: You need to point through CNAME to our URL shortener to avoid SSL error or update the IP Address / A address (35.238.70.19) to avoid connection errors the future. For more details on how to add a custom domain.
We sincerely hope that the above-mentioned improvements will elevate your Replug experience, enabling you to achieve better ROI from the branded shortened links you share.
Wasiq Naeem
Wasiq Naeem is a content and digital marketing veteran who is passionate about his writing. Extensive research and producing high-quality content is just another day at the office for him.
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Over 35,000+ marketers, agencies, businesses, e-commerce stores and brands optimize and track their links using Replug and get better returns on their marketing efforts.
Wasiq Naeem
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Hassaan Khan
One of the perks of having a link management strategy is that you can
Create
Create and use 
It’s a fact that bio links are vital to improving your
Mustafa Niazi
Despite, the poll is showing a high percentage of responses, with the fear of AI replacing SaaS tools or a service but the comments state otherwise.
Here’s my take on the matter.
Now we are done clearing that AI is not taking your jobs. Let’s move on further to learn more about OpenAI.
Sadia Umer
