How Does URL Shortening Work?

Uniform Resource Locator is one of the vital aspects of your SEO strategy. It is also one of the first things your site visitors will notice. It will also go a long way in creating an impressive brand impression and boosting your site traffic.
Thus, make sure you optimize your URL structure and shorten your links. URL shortening is a method used by the webmasters and social media marketers to make long URLs shorter. This helps them make their posts look aesthetically pleasing.
The working of URL shortening services is the same. They work using a Web server function known as a “Redirect.” The new URL redirects users to an old long URL.
When you type any URL in the web browser, this sends an HTTP command to the server, asking it to show the requested Web page. Redirection serves a vital purpose for digital marketing, mainly when it comes to transferring page authority and rankings that past web pages have created. Below are the following redirect HTTP response codes that a server can show. It includes:

a) 301 Code

It indicates that the requested link has been moved permanently.

b) 302 Code

It indicates that the resource requested has been shifted to the URL temporarily given by the Location header.

c) 303 Code

It returns a "See Other" status and indicates that the requested resource can be found at another address.

Today there are tons of sites, plugins, and open-source codebases available. They let you shorten a link. Famous link shortening services include:

  • • Rebrandly
  • • ow.ly
  • • bit.ly
  • • tinyurl.com