zes.st is a shortened URL used by Zesty Marketing Agency for posting links onto social media. A URL shortener is a simple tool that takes a long URL and turns it into whatever URL you would like it to be.
A URL shortener is the same as a link shortener, link shrinker, link compressor, a URL condenser and a vanity URL creator. There are different ways of naming a URL shortener which all do the same thing, take a long URL and shorten it into a customised URL.
What is a shortened link?
It’s a very simple concept, link shorteners are tools that cut links down into polished URLs. It makes absolutely no difference to the connecting page it brings the visitor to; it simply condenses the URL to be more user-friendly.
What link shorteners do?
Using a link shortener has many benefits for your online content. There are many circumstances where you will need to shorten links, especially on social media when you can’t anchor text to hide your URL. There are many benefits of using link shorteners as shown below:
It improves user experience.
First and foremost, does anyone actually enjoy looking at a bulky link?
Shorter URLs make for a much better online reader experience as they don’t clog up your content as much. It also makes them much easier to copy and paste if the user chooses to do so.
They’re more attractive.
Lengthy URL’s can be untrustworthy, whereas condensed URLs are more appealing to the eye than long, bulky ones.
Therefore, people are far more likely to click on a short URL than a long one.
They help stay under character limits.
If you’re posting on a platform that restricts you to a character limit (such as Twitter), then a URL shortener is your best friend.
If you’re sharing a link in your post, a lengthy URL can easily eat up your character count, so a shortener is often necessary.
Using zes.st for tracking clicks
Some URL shortener tools come with built-in link performance analytics, allowing you to track the click-through rate of certain campaigns.
This can help analyse the success of your link building campaigns and help drive traffic towards your website by analysing there performance.
Are shortened links bad for your SEO?
According to several ranking specialists, it seems that using URL shorteners doesn’t lead to any negative impact on your SEO. As a matter of fact, shortened URLs are considered by search engines as any regular 301 redirects and they will thus act upon it.
