How To Create Your Own URL Shortener

URL shortening is a growing trend in online marketing.  Short URL’s are advantageous on many fronts.   First, URL shortening services usually provide some sort of analytic function such as click tracking.  Second, short URLs  use less characters which helps to optimize posts on micro blogging platforms like Twitter.  Unfortunately, when you use a public URL shortening service the disadvantages of these URL shorteners can outweigh the benefits.  In this post I am going to show you how to create your own using Pretty Link Pro for WordPress.

The Disadvantage of URL Shortening Services

If you have followed any of the authors on How-To-Blog.TV, you know we encourage bloggers and online marketers to maintain control and ownership of their domain names.  Nothing changes with this philosophy when it comes to short domain names.  Hence, it shouldn’t be a surprise to you that our first major issue with public domain shortening services like Bit.ly are that you end up creating inbound links to your content based on their domain name and not yours.  In doing so you loose potential link juice and deep link opportunities into your domain.  Beyond the SEO opportunity cost, you really never know when your links will be expired with some public services and that could cost you long term traffic.  Last, domains are a strong element of a brand and when you shorten a URL based off of someone else’s brand, you end up diluting yours.

The second downside of URL shortening service is that they charge for statistics and other features.  Some plans get pricey very quickly.  In the end, I’ve yet to come across a feature set slick enough to justify paying a monthly fee.

Decisions Prior to Creating Your URL Shortener

I know creating your own URL shortener sounds really complicated but with WordPRess and Pretty Link Pro for WordPress it really is simple.  The hard part are a few strategic decisions you must make before installing software.  The first decision you have to make is whether to use the URL of your blog or to create your own branded URL shortening service.

If you want to use the URL of your blog, there are several advantages.  The first is that you can keep all inbound links coming straight into your blog.  Second, your statistics and link management are built into the same WordPress console that you blog in daily.  Last, your links maintain your blog’s brand.  The downside to using your blog’s URL are that your actual domain name might be very long which will take up precious characters in microblogging services like Twitter.  The second is that you will likely have to use another service for links that target subject matter that is not part of your blog’s brand.  For example, if I were to link to an article on politics from How-To-Blog.TV, it might look a little funny.

The second option you have is to host your URL shortener under its own domain name.  With the recent introduction of .CO domains, there are a bunch of great short domain names available.  For example, we built a general Orangecast URL shortener from the domain http://oc2.co .  In the end, you might decide to shorten links from both your blog and a dedicated domain likc OC2.CO .  Still, think this through before you start downloading plugins and buying domain names.

Creating Your Own URL Shortener with WordPress and Pretty Link Pro

Once you’ve made the hard strategy decisions, the easy part is creating the actual URL shortener.  Here are the steps.

1. In WordPress, go to the Plugins side menu and choose “Add New”
2. Use the search feature to search for Pretty Link.  Once you find it, install it.
3. Go to Pretty Link Options to tweek your settings.
4. Start creating links under the Pretty Links menu.

Once you get comfortable with the free plugin, I highly recommend upgrading to the pro edition for a one time fee of $37.  The pro version has great features including customizable reporting, the ability to create links outside of the WordPress backend, and Twitter integration.  There is also a great keyword replacement feature if you are an affiliate marketer.

If you share links in social media, there is really not a solid argument for not having your own URL shortener.  It is easy and will save you time as it integrates both link creation and statistics right into WordPress.