Link shortening tools have been popularized by bit.ly and others.
They were built purposely for reducing the size of long links on Social Media and other sites to reduce the character length usage. However, over time affiliate marketers started using them to hide their affiliate links. While this was still legal use, such shortening tools could also be used to hide malicious links.
When such practices came to light, bit.ly introduced link tracing facilities. So If you aren't sure about where a Bitlink will direct to, it is possible to preview the Bitlink before clicking on it. To do this, simply add a + sign to the end of any Bitlink in your browser. For example, for http://bit.ly/Wn2Xdz just enter http://bit.ly/Wn2Xdz+ into your browser and you'll be sent to a preview page for the link.
Over time, link shortening technology has advanced even further and digital marketers have fused it together with iframes to create a unique medium of lead generation.
Take for example pixel.me. It allows you to attach your Facebook, Google, Twitter and LinkedIn pixels to all the links you share so that you can run retargeting advertisements on them.
Then we have an even better link shortener called RocketLink. RocketLink allows you to not only shorten links, but also add
1. Call to actions on the links
2. Live chat widgets on the links
3. Opt-in forms to the links
4. Add push notifications to the links
5. Embed a video on the links
6. Add retargeting pixels to the links created using RocketLink.
No wonder, the technology is fast catching the fancy of all digital marketers who are quickly lapping it up.
Ash Ganda
Digital Marketer
Google Adwords / SEO / Websites / G-Suite Setup & Training
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