Imagine your news platform publishes over 100 news stories daily, each with an external link. Manually shortening these links is not only outdated but inefficient in today's dynamic content world. Automation is a necessity.
Why are short links important for news platforms?
Short links are more than just character savers. They play a crucial role in enhancing efficiency and analytics for news platforms:
Unified Format: They ensure a standardized link appearance, regardless of the source.
Click Analytics: They allow you to track what users are reading, where, and at what time. This is critical, as 87% of clicks from aggregators come from the first 3 links in the feed, and the clearer the link, the higher the chance of a click.
CTR Analytics: They provide the ability to analyze the click-through rate (CTR) for automatically updated news feeds.
Flexibility: They offer the immediate ability to change a link's destination if the original material was removed or moved.
How does automation work?
Thanks to API integration with link shortening services like Surl.li, news aggregators can:
Instant Creation: Generate short links immediately upon parsing a news story.
Automatic UTM Tags: Automatically add tags (e.g.,
utm_source=aggregator) for detailed traffic source analytics.Centralized Statistics: Maintain unified statistics across all sources, working in real-time — a news story appears, and the short link is already generated.
Benefits for the Editorial Team
Implementing automated link shortening brings tangible benefits:
Speed: The process occurs without human intervention.
Control: Links always lead where they should.
Security: Eliminates the risk of redirecting the audience to third-party resources.
Flexibility: A single click allows you to change the traffic route.
Modern news aggregators are no longer just news feeds; they are sophisticated analytical systems where every click matters. Automated link shortening is not a technical bonus; it's the core of efficiency. While some editorial teams are still manually editing HTML, others are already working with data and optimizing their workflow.