URL shortners are used in many different situations from social media to affiliate marketing and seminars. Since the birth of Twitter, URL shortners are used more widely because posting a link could take up all of your character allowance for your tweet, so they have made spreading the word about online content easier.

What does a Short URL look like?

A short URL is the same URL just a lot smaller, so for example:

This long URL http://www.noisylittlemonkey.com/search-engine-optimisation.php when made shorter by a URL shortner will look like this http://mnky.bz/4F

They will go to the same landing page but as you can see have reduced in size quite significantly.

How can I get a shorten my URL’s?

There are many ways to shorten you links that you may wish to place into a tweet, status update or even in an email. All you do is simply visit on of the sites below, paste your URL you would like to make short in to the URL converter and its done!

There are many free URL shortners that you can use to easily shorten your links, these include:

• Tiny Url
• Google
• Bit.ly
• Tiny

Just to name a few!

If you are using HootSuite to manage your twitter account they will automatically use their own URL shortner every time you post a link which will look like this http://ow.ly/6wgRr and TweetDeck gives you a range of Shorteners to choose from.

If you are using Twitter through Twitter.com, it seems to chop and change which shortener it uses, but it normally shortens all links for you.

For total control though you should consider obtaining your own fancy URL shortner like us (http://mnky.bz/) it may cost a few quid but we certainly think its worth it. You can track clicks and shares more effectively than simply with Google Analytics, plus you stay on-brand. If you would to get your own, let us know and we'll help - either by setting it up for you or pointing you in the right direction.