7 things to look for in a URL snipping ServiceWritten by Charles H Smith
7 things to look for in a URL snipping ServiceBy 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 Ther are several URL snipping services that are no longer active.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 links expire? If they expire, you may want to look to another service. Second, is there a direct redirect? If, upon selecting short URL, you are sent to a transition or intersitial page, this page may change in future to display an advertisment of free service. The preferable redirection is a direct link to your short URL. Third, service should check URL and determine is is valid. Everyone makes typos, this simply check for valid URL format. Fourth, how long has 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 URL snipping service to hide email addresses from spammers? Try to snip mailto:youremailaddress@yourdomain.com. If resulting snipped URL opens your default email program, then you may hide your email address from spammers.
| | Alexa RankWritten by Ratliff J
Alexa gets its rankings data from browsers that have Alexa toolbar installed. That's a fairly small sampling, as well as a skewed one, as many Web-savvy individuals feel that having toolbar is akin to having spyware on your system. Because of this, any info you get from Alexa needs to be taken with a grain of salt.It definitely doesn't measure true popularity of a site, but can give you some idea if people with Alexa toolbar installed are visiting your site. I have to admit that I like comparison feature at Alexa site where you can stack up a few different URLs in related markets and compare their traffic. I don't put much stock in actual numbers, but it is very interesting to see how much higher or lower sites are on chart in comparison to one another.Every now and then when I'm bored, I'll use this feature to compare my forum site to some of other forum sites in SEO industry, and it's pretty enlightening!
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