If you’re using Bit.ly to shorten your urls and keep tracks of clicks, you should know that Google has temporarily blacklisted Bit.ly, which means that when someone was clicking one of your bit.ly links, they would get a malware warning message!
Fortunately after 12 hours, Bit.ly convinced Google to remove the ban and all is normal now 🙂
So why did google blacklists Bit.ly?
The thing is that besides providing a short, easy to share url, there is another function that spammers love: it hides the actual url you are trying to send them to. And that’s why they got black listed.
So should you use url shorteners? Here is my recommendation:
– I say yes you can use them when space is limited like twitter or facebook
– Avoid url shorteners in your email campaigns! (you can use something else to track clicks, I have it integrated into my infusionsoft but if you’re using aweber of mailchimp you can use something like pretty link light or another plugin to do that)
Now I’d like to hear from you: what are you using (if any) to track your clicks? Please share in the comments 🙂
