Bit.ly Now Showing Ads

See what I use to shorten links or cloak them.

Bit.ly, the popular link shortner, recently started sending emails that they would begin showing ads prior to being redirected to your link.

For now, this is only on the free service.

Hey, they have to pay for it somehow, right?

Shortened vs Cloaked

The Bit.ly service got popular back in the day when Twitter had a 140 character limit.

That limitation is long gone and you no longer need to use the shorter link version.

But, you may still want to make a long affiliate link look “pretty”.

That’s actually falling out of favor, as sometimes the affiliate tracking doesn’t work on redirected links.

FYI, it may not work on links that open in a new tab if the noreferer is turned on, for better security.

Plus, cloaking is against the Terms of Service of some affiliate programs, like Amazon.

Onsite Link Redirects

If you still need to shorten or cloak a link, and you have a WordPress site, you can use a couple of free plugins that will get the job done for you.

The plugins are:

• Redirection

• Pretty Links

Plus, using such a plugin for shortening means your links will be branded with your domain too, meaning the first part will have your domain name in it. Only the slug of the link, or the last part, will change.

I Favor Redirection

I like the Redirection plugin best because it has less bloat and it’s easy to use.

Plus, you can turn off the logs so that they don’t build in the database.

See my tutorial on how to make links with it. And be sure to turn off the logs.

The Only Reason to Use Pretty Links

Both of these plugins do the same thing - create redirect links.

But, Pretty Links is specifically made for affiliates who need logs to track clicks. They can then compare that data with their affiliate program report.

But, all those extra logs and such take up a TON of space in your database, and a bloated database makes for a slow site.

So, if you don’t need those logs, and your tracking clicks in GA4 instead, then you don’t need all the extra bloat from Pretty Links.

Swap Plugins

You can swap your shortened/cloaked links from Pretty Links to Redirection.

But, before you do that, if you use Pretty Links and you don’t need the logs and such, see if you can delete them, then turn them off from collecting. That will stop the database bloat.

If you still want to trade plugins, you will need to export your links from Pretty Links first.

Then you’ll need to import them into Redirection.

This tutorial shows how to export links from the Yoast SEO Premium plugin and import into Redirection. So, the first part is different, than it will be with Pretty Links, but the last part is the same.

Do You Use a Link Shortener?

Let us know what you use and why.