Tracking Tip for bit.ly Shortened URLs

[tedster]

I recently learned about this - it's pretty cool.

If you paste any bit.ly shortened URL in your browser's navigation bar and add a + sign to the end of it (no space), then the bit.ly website returns stats about how often a click on that URL has been processed. If another bit.ly URL points to the same target page, you also can view aggregate data.

This works for any bit.ly URL, not just those you've created. It's quick and handy peak into how well a Tweet actually draws a click.

[Robert Charlton]

:)

Yes, it is cool, so cool in fact that it's inspired me to read the bit.ly Help page....
http://bit.ly/a/help [bit.ly]

It turns out there are several ways to get the the data, though putting the + sign at the end looks to be the easiest...

How do I see how many times a bit.ly link was clicked on? [bit.ly...]

Every bit.ly link has an info page, which reveals the number of related clicks and other relevant data. You can get to the info page in a few different ways. For example, to view the info page for the bit.ly link http://bit.ly/CUjV -

- Add a "+" sign to the end of the link - http://bit.ly/CUjV+

- Add "/info/" in the middle of the link - http://bit.ly/info/CUjV

You can also use the the sidebar bookmarklet to instantly get information for your bit.ly link, or you can see basic information about all of your links on your Manage page.

The entire page makes for fascinating reading.

[phranque]

i wonder how the bit.ly tracking will be affected by "Twitter's Upcoming Link Shortener Service" [webmasterworld.com], the t.co wrapping that is being rolled out.

[tedster]

Here's what Twitter said about that question:

Twitter’s link service at [t.co...] is used to better protect users from malicious sites that engage in spreading malware, phishing attacks, and other harmful activity. A link converted by Twitter's link service is checked against a list of potentially dangerous sites. When there's a match, users can be warned before they continue...

You can continue to use a URL shortener to shorten links, and any tracking metrics (like those from bit.ly) will continue working as before.

[support.twitter.com...]