7 things to look for in a URL snipping Service

Posted by Charles H Smith on: 2005-03-19 23:46:46

Self SEO > Webmaster Articles

7 things to look for in a URL snipping Service

By Charles H Smith

URL snipping services are becoming commonplace today.
Surfers use them to mask affiliate URLs, shorten very long
URL's, even to hide email addresses from spammers and
automatic email harvesters. Ther are several URL snipping
services that are no longer active. These inculde:
shortlink.us, quickones.org, smlnk.com, and smurl.it.
Hopefully, you didn't lose any carefully crafted and well
planned email link campaigns as these services closed.

As you look to snip your URL's using a free service, there
are several items to investgate.

First, do the links expire? If they expire, you may want to
look to another service.

Second, is there a direct redirect? If, upon selecting the
short URL, you are sent to a transition or intersitial
page, this page may change in the future to display an
advertisment of the free service. The preferable
redirection is a direct link to your short URL.

Third, the service should check the URL and determine is is
valid. Everyone makes typos, this simply check for valid
URL format.

Fourth, how long has the service been in business?
Longevity and reliability are crucial when you are snipping
hundreds of affiliate links.

Fifth, is there any Terms of Service that you do not agree
with? If there are, look for another service.

Sixth, can you use the URL snipping service to hide email
addresses from spammers? Try to snip
mailto:youremailaddress@yourdomain.com. If the resulting
snipped URL opens your default email program, then you may
hide your email address from spammers.

Seventh, are your links available only to the site
administrators or are they available to the general public?

An alternative to the free services is your own snipping
service, running from your server. This ensures your links
are available until you decide to delete them.

Generally speaking, the short URL generators are php/MySQL
driven scripts. You would need php installed on your server,
your site administrator could tell you if it is. You would
also need a MySQL database, again your site administrator
could tell you if this is available to you.

Another item to check is the control panel page. It should
be a php template that can be edited for color, position
etc.

If you are using a shared hosting situation you may not be
able to run a script that requires will not allow Mod
Rewrites to be on, It should be a webmaster settable
configuration.

What's the difference Mod Rewrites On/Off? As you compare
the resulting snipped URL's, if has a ? in the URL; such
as, http://snippedurl.com/?a then the script is set for Mon
Rewrites off. This is probably not the preferable URL
format. If there is no ? in the snipped URL then it may
only be run with Mod Rewrites on.

As you look to snipping your URL's you may want to bring
the service in-house to your server. This will give your
site added stickyness as your customers, return time and
time again to snip their URL's.

Charles H Smith
http://charleshsmith.com/blog
http://snipmyurl.com

About the Author

Charles H Smith
http://charleshsmith.com/blog
http://snipmyurl.com

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