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I'm researching whether or not to use a link-shortening service for the links created by a new social sharing function on a website. When someone clicks "share this page", should they be sharing the canonical URL or a shortened version (e.g. http://vanity_doma.in/VE23jva)?

The common justification for short links (given in numerous 2011 blog posts) is, "they're easier to copy and paste" or "they're easier to interact with on mobile". And sure, I kind of agree. But I can't find any numerical evidence supporting those assertions.

Another justification from earlier times, “they’re easier to tweet”, is no longer relevant.

OK, so if short links are easier to share and interact with, then they must get shared or clicked more often than long links, right? Is there any evidence for that?

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  • Sorry but your question in its current form may promote low quality and possibly link based only answers. You should be able to save your question through editing, i.e rather asking for a link to that study you can simplifier ask people why short urls out perform longer urls with real evidence to support that theory.
    – Simon Hayter
    Commented Oct 6, 2015 at 21:18
  • Fair enough — but this kind of question has been asked and answered dozens of times. It seems like the community readily answers such questions. Furthermore, I have found several of those answers helpful. Finally, asking people “why do short URLs outperform” is a question I have asked elsewhere, and it elicits almost exclusively opinion and conjecture — which I know are specifically out of scope for this community.
    – hoosteeno
    Commented Oct 8, 2015 at 15:33
  • Rules have changed over time on Pro Webmasters, also some questions are expected to be missed by moderators. Also, if you edit the question and suggest the community to provide evidence, then obviously you don't accept the answers which are pure speculation. Another thing is if you really want quality answers is to run a bounty on it, obviously you need some more rep to do this, but won't take long helping the community on things you do know, and I bet you know a lot.
    – Simon Hayter
    Commented Oct 8, 2015 at 15:50

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