Think twice before using a url shortener

February 15, 2025

Url shorteners are everywhere on the internet. People find them convenient, they save space and they make long messy links more shareable. But while they seem like a harmless tool they come with a hidden cost. If you’re serious about security, your branding and long-term link reliability you might want to reconsider using them.

They hide the destination

When you see a full url you can tell where you’re going. A shortened link like bit.ly/xyz123 gives you no clue making it a perfect tool for phishing attacks and malware distribution. Malicious actors use shorteners to trick people into clicking on unsafe links which is why many cautious users avoid them altogether.

Link rot

Many url shortening services shut down over time. Google’s goo.gl is gone. Twitter’s t.co and Facebook’s fb.me work only within their platforms. If a service you rely on disappears so do all your links. Even if the service remains active they might impose limits, require payment or change their policies leaving you with broken links across emails, social media and printed materials.

Privacy and tracking concerns

Most url shorteners track clicks, recording data about visitors, devices, and locations. While this might be useful for marketers it also raises privacy concerns. Some users (and even browsers) block shortened urls for this reason.

Poor SEO and branding

Shortened urls don’t contribute to your brand’s visibility. Instead of reinforcing your identity you’re driving traffic through a third-party service. Plus generic shorteners don’t help with search engine optimization (SEO).

Targets for abuse

Since shortened urls hide the destination they’re often used for spam, scams, and malware. Because of this some platforms automatically block shortened urls or at least treat them with suspicion. For example some email providers flag emails with shortened links as spam and social media sites may reduce visibility for posts that contain them.

My advice:

• Keep urls always human-readable so people remember them.
• Use descriptive branded urls (yourcompany.com/event) for trust and SEO benefits.
• Use natural redirects (yourdomain.com/special-offer) redirecting to a longer CMS generated page url.
• Use a self-hosted url shortener (like Yourls) which lets you retain control over your data.
• And if you need analytics consider first-party tracking tools like (Matomo analytics) and use the UTM link parameter.

So url shorteners might seem like a quick fix but in the long run they can lead to broken links, security issues and lost branding opportunities. Unless you’re using a custom solution you’re placing control of your links in the hands of a third party which might not always have your best interests in mind.