• SEOmoz, Thursday, September 11, 2008 3:30 PM

Email marketers and Twitter users may be the most versed in the virtues of URL shorteners like TinyURL, Bit.ly and LinkBee, but Jane Copeland uncovers a slew of alternatives in this post, and explains why they're useful to the SEO community at large.

As the "granddaddy" of URL shorteners, TinyURL has a bit of an advantage. But while it may be one of the easiest tools to use, Copeland notes that there's no tracking (i.e. you can't tell who, where or when someone clicked on your link) and that some people may have acquired TinyURL blindness. On the other hand, a newcomer LinkBee is simple enough to use, and allows people to monetize their links with ads--but may turn off people who just wanted to get to the content that was promised.

Then there's SnipURL (also called Snurl or Snipr). It offers "customization combined with safety," Copeland says. You can make your destination URL less guessable by appending it with a unique code, you get tons of data--including stats on unique clicks--and the most popular links from the past month. The only caveat is that it contributes to the tons of data SEOs already have to wade through. "I sometimes wonder whether it's really healthy for SEO types, who are usually quite data-happy, to be allowed access to more RSS feeds and spreadsheets," she says.

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