Facebook question - why do companies use 'Short Url's'

[simpson7647]

Hi all, just a simple question which is why do companies on facebook use small urls such as 'http://goo.gl/ etc'

Is this simply to shorten the url so it doesn't take up so much space in the facebook post or is there another reason?
Something I've seen that questions this is some websites with short 4, 5 or 6 character long links do this exact thing.


I also read that adding links from your website to facebook can help with SEO but would this be the case with a small url as mentioned which would simply forward you to the website link without clearly showing the website address?

Last of all, what are the pros and cons of each please?

Many thanks,

Kind regards,

Ryan,

 

[astutiumRob]

For a variety of reasons, but mostly because it's shorter.

 

[Laura Chattington]

ha ha... maybe gets more clicks than longer URL's (someone has probably tested that in marketing circles), fits on the page, fits into the tweeter world... and maybe looks better too.

I use them and now I'm going to go and do some research.

 

[JonathanSEO]

Tracking purposes.

 

ha ha... maybe gets more clicks than longer URL's (someone has probably tested that in marketing circles), fits on the page, fits into the tweeter world... and maybe looks better too.

I use them and now I'm going to go and do some research.



quote]

People click because of titles and descriptions not URL's

 

[OliverTrent]

It's two fold, first, Twitter. Damn character limitations.

Second. It increases text vs hyperlink ratio, which can improve conversions.

 

[helponbusiness]

there are many reasons why they use URL shortener.

--> increase traffic
--> URL redirection
--> reduce the bad effects on our website url, due to continuous Social Network sharing

 

[DazRave]

Things like when sending google map links the link can be about 100 characters long, so google started using the short URL feature to make it much easier and nicer to send across when sharing.

However the above poster is correct, shorter URLs first started getting the norm when twitter came about.

I use a personal short url as a development area when creating websites.. it makes it look quite professional when sending the link to clients to check out the work in progress when it is a bit like "url.at/clientname"

(it also comes in handy when sending a url via Text message using a SMS system.

 

[simpson7647]

Many thanks for all the replies, much appreciated indeed.

Tracking purposes is a great point

 

[n1kko22]

There is a good post about short urls here mashable(dot)com/2009/04/05/url-shorteners/ might give you a few answers.

Sorry I don't yet have enough posts to add the link just replace the (dot)