Announcing Cligs - Short URLs with Analytics and SEO Friendliness

Note: This post was archived from eKstreme.com, my previous site I used to blog at and was written before I joined Google.

Note 2: Cligs was acquired by Mr Wong in December 2009.

That's right folks, the short URL market is broken and I'm fixing it. The new service is called Cligs (like Clicks but with a G). It's a short URL service on steroids. The key feature is that it tracks the clicks of the short URLs.

What kind of analytics do you get? At launch right now:

• Cligs gives you tons of traffic data and analytics about the traffic your short URLs get. This includes:
  • Number of hits
  • Referral stats
  • Mentions on twitter, blogs, and the web
  • Mentions of the destination URL on twitter, blogs, the web, and delicious
  And lots more! And if you want a more data, just let me know!
• Cligs forwards with a 301 Permanent Redirect so your destination URL gets full SEO benefits of the link. If you are an affiliate marketer, this means you can hide your backlinks, get traffic, get statistics, and get the SEO benefits.
• With Cligs, you can create an unlimited number of short URLs for the same destination URL. This is great because you can promote the same destination at different sites like twitter or facebook by using different cligs and watch how each source sends you traffic.

That's just the start. There are a ton of new features that are going to be added in the coming few days and weeks, including some SEO-useful analytics.

And, of course, there is a bookmarklet:

Shorten Link @ Cli.gs

So what are you waiting for? Stop using plain-vanilla short URL services and start using Cligs.

Comments and feedback most welcome.