For an influencer or a small business owner, convincing people to click on a long, unruly link can be difficult. Most of these links look ugly or spammy and viewers usually scroll past them without clicking. So, how can you make people click on your links? Link shorteners are great for anyone who wants to reduce unwieldy, long links to just a few characters. Once you get a hold of the best link shorteners, your click rates and engagement will become a lot better.
In this blog, we’ll tell you why you should use link shorteners and the 8+ best link shorteners for social media available for free.
Why should you use a Link Shortener?
If you share links on your social media, there are many good reasons to use link shorteners. The best URL shorteners will solve many of your social media-related problems:
- Long, jumbled links seem suspicious
- URL shorteners let you brand your links
- They let you track performance
- They make sure your links stay within character limits on social media
- Makes your links easier to remember
1. Simplified – Best Free Link Shortener
Simplified has one of the best free URL shorteners for social media.
Apart from the link shortener, Simplified is also known for its graphic designing and AI copywriting tool that’s free and extremely easy to use. Moreover, its one-of-a-kind AI technology can make your work a lot easier. With thousands of effects, AI templates, and stock pictures, Simplified gives you all the options to elevate your marketing campaigns. Further, you can then use Simplified’s link shorteners to share your work too!
What’s more? The software also provides
- Branded links and connectors with social media management software
- Social media reporting
- Analytics
- Tracking
All these features will help you disseminate your shortened links effortlessly throughout your social media platforms and get desired results by keeping up with analytics. Finally, you can even automate your social media content by using its free content calendar.
2. BL.INK
BL.INK is a URL shortener tool with an easy-to-use dashboard for tracking link activity. Additionally, you can analyze traffic depending on geographic area, device type, and language. Therefore, this helps you better understand where your target audience is and how they’re interacting with your content. Together, these features make it one of the best link shorteners for YouTube. Also, you can learn what time of day your clicks receive the highest engagement.
BL.INK can even generate custom short links for better branding. You can even use its beta version of Smart Link to create highly targeted word-based URLs. This will help drive traffic to your site and inspire conversions. Finally, to ensure that only the appropriate team members have access to your link shortener tool, just enable user permissions.
Cons
- Outdated user interface
- Difficult to find previous links that have been created
- No option to shorten links without signing up
- It only tracks a limited number of clicks
3. Ow.ly
Ow.ly, created by the social media management company Hootsuite, is a link shortener that comes with every free Hootsuite account. You can use Ow.ly to distribute your links and track their performance data right on the Hootsuite platform. Moreover, this allows you to shorten every single link you post to all of your social media profiles.
Lastly, if you already use Hootsuite as your social media management software, Ow.ly one of the best link shorteners for you.
Cons
- There is no way to shorten links without signing up.
- Not a good alternative for those who do not use Hootsuite; other options provide more sophisticated features.
4. Bitly
Bitly is a link shortener platform with a complete dashboard that displays performance analytics for your links. These include click-through rates and channel stats. It is one of the best URL shorteners for Facebook and other social media platforms. Bitly also displays the geographic location of those who click on your links.
It’s free account allows for up to 1,000 unbranded links and 30 days of link reporting, making it suitable for small enterprises. Its enterprise plan allows you to brand more than 10,000 links each month. This subscription level is ideal for major companies who want to brand and track every link in their marketing campaigns.
Cons
- To modify the slug (a unique identifying part of a web address), it requires you to sign up on Bitly.
5. Rebrandly
Rebrandly is a link shortener tool that allows you to brand your links and track their success metrics. You can also connect with over 50 different platforms to distribute them easily.
Similar to Simplified, Rebrandly is among the best link shorteners for small businesses with high growth potential. It has three plans for individuals and two options for teams. For example, its free plan includes 5,000 monitored clicks, 500 branded links, and 5 custom domain names.
Cons
- Unlimited tracked clicks aren’t available
Bonus: UTM Parameters: What They Are And How To Use Them To Track Your Online Marketing
6. Capsulink
Capsulink is a URL shortening and link management platform tailored for businesses of all sizes. It excels with its Smart URLs, which automatically direct clicks based on the user’s device, location, and activity, significantly improving marketing efforts and user engagement. Capsulink’s feature-rich toolkit includes multi-user access, in-depth analytics, API integration, custom-branded links, and high-quality QR code generation. Premium users also gain access to the exclusive cli.fm domain, further enhancing brand visibility.
Capsulink starts with a free plan that includes 5,000 clicks per month with no limitations on the number of links and no expiry dates.
Cons
- Click limits
- It’s not possible to shorten links without signing up
7. TinyURL
Easy to use, TinyURL is one of the best free URL shorteners that is ideal for users who want to shorten links regularly.
After you sign up for a free account, you can also track crucial metrics and analytics for your connections. Even if you only utilize this tool for a single project, you can easily track the campaign’s success.
Cons
- On the free version, you can only have one active TinyURL at a time.
8. Short.io
Short.io is a URL shortener that focuses on your branding first. It allows you to build, personalize, and shorten links with your own domain. Firstly, the website provides a collection of lessons that will walk you through every aspect of the platform.
Secondly, analyzing and tracking your links is a key tool that Short.io provides. Their clickstream function tracks data from each click in real-time, including nation, date, time, social network, browser, and more. Moreover, you can also view your data in easy-to-digest graphs, tables, and charts by clicking on the statistics tab.
Cons
- In the free package, you cannot shorten more than one link.
9. Sniply
Bonus: Creating A Global Preview Link For Anyone To Duplicate Design
The key feature of Sniply is the ability to place a call-to-action (CTA) over any link you share. Additionally, you’ll receive a short URL and click-tracking information. Therefore, when someone clicks on a link from your Twitter profile to some useful article, you can display a pop-up encouraging people to subscribe to your newsletter.
Cons
- Pricier than simpler link shorteners with a $25/month basic plan and $125/month for Business.
Wrapping Up With The Best Link Shortener – Simplified
Are you looking for an easy-to-use URL shortener to work with your social media campaign? Simplify your work days, weeks, and months when you integrate your social networks with Simplified.
Collaborate with your team, create and schedule posts, and even customize designs all in one app.
