Few months back I talked about su.pr URL shortener from Stumble upon and later on I wrote a tutorial on How to configure Su.pr URL shortening service under your domain name. There is no downside of using Su.pr shortening service but using your own URL shortening service under your domain name is much better idea. This will give more traffic to your blog and using a good URL shortening script you can also configure it to see stats and other details.
There are many online resources which let you shorten your long URL links to a compact and much shorter in letters, which are quite easier to share on social services.
If you own a website and want to create such your own URL shortening service than here is a very easy way to do that but require some average skills, as we need to install a script.
This script is known as YOURLS , its all free to use and can be use to create personal (private) or commercial (open to public) URL shortener.
To implement this in your main website hosting, you should try it on your local wordpress installation.
Step by Step guide to create your own URL shortening service
Installation
(Requirements – a server with PHP 4.3, MYSQL 4.1 and mod_rewrite enabled.)
Example Webhost : Bluehost, Hostgator, Dreamhost
What we will do exactly? Installing an easy to setup script to our cPanel just like we install WordPress manually.
Step One:
Download the zip file of the script from download page
Step Two: Configurations
Open up and extract the zip file and find file includes/config-sample.php and rename it to includes/config.php Now open this renamed file in text editor like Notepad to make essential configurations.
Fields required to install the script to your database for proper get functionality includes YOURLS_DB_USER, YOURLS_DB_PASS, YOURLS_DB_NAME, YOURLS_SITE – (These are MySQL settings which you will setup in next step)
Note: Don’t forget to edit username and password fields in the same file, as they are needed to sign in..
Step Three: Setup Database and MySQL settings
Now go to the cPanel home page and select MySQL Databases – and setup and new database.
Once you are done with the making new database, simply change the mentioned fields in includes/config.php as per your new setup of database and save the file.
Step Four: Uploading files onto the server
Now select all the files unzipped earlier to the root of your hosting account or www or public_html
Step Five: On web installation
Once all files are uploaded, open up the link in browser as final step
http://www.your-domain.com/admin/
Now login with your details and enjoy your own smart URL shortener
Admin Dashboard Screenshot
Notable Features of YOURLS
Stats Support - You can also checkout the stats for your created short links like traffic sources, location and detailed other stats.
API - to stand out with recent trends and to go fully flexible with development.
WordPress plugin – for full fletch integration with your websites/blog hosted on WordPress.
Give you thoughts about benefit of using own URL shortening service?
This is a guest post by By 3rdBrain who Writes at ActivR.com. You can also write for Shoutmeloud, for more details read Join Shoutmeloud.
Related posts:
- Wordpress.com Got WP URL shortener
- Install Wordpress offline on Your PC using Xampp
- Su.pr :URL Shortener from Stumble Upon for Traffic and Stats
- Stumbleupon Su.pr URL shortening for your personal Domain | Wordpress Plugin
- How To Install wordpress Locally Using WAMP
- Wamp not Starting in Windows Problem
- Su.pr Bookmarklet For URL shortener and Traffic
- Launchpad : Wordpress Free domain parking theme
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
This is very useful post for the newbie like me on wordpress.
For newbies better try this tool installing on your locally installed WordPress setup.. that will give you more insight on its options..
Yeah right! I too prefer to install scripts locally before I install them on a live host.
Yeah goodor ifyou want just a url shortner for your blog address use Pretty Link wp plugins it shows like this: yoursite.com/xyz
if you are happy with that tool then you should give it a try to YOURLs and experience its functionality .. moreover you can also integrate this script with its own WP Plugin..
Url shortening under our own domain name is not that beneficial, as already many services from many websites do that for you.
Instead implementing that in our own domain those external services like digg shortner when digging & twitter works for the website links.
Otherwise those who want to implement at their website level, this is a good article for them.
this is somewhat a future of blogs, equipped with many tools to make their life more easier and blogging to go rock n roll
– and I think its just a start, expect some more personalized easy to setup services in mean time..
Bro Did you mean URL like mysite.com/xyz ??????
Then This Cool!
Yes.. ! Hope you like the review and tutorial..
this post is very informative.
it would help a lot for those who does not want to send readers out of their websites for services like url shortening!!!
I am using GOCodes Wp Plugin for all my redirections. Thats simple and requires no installations.
Using separate script may increase our time to manage it .. and your Related Posts shows great alternatives
Thanks 3RDBrain !
You are right there are now a lot of alternatives but this thing is quite handy for large websites managed by a team. Plus, you can also start your own URL shortening service just like TinyUrl, Bit.ly and others.. Don’t forget to check its stats for individual shortened links..
A well written tutorial ! Thanks a lot !
Hey Neeraj ! hanks for liking the tutorial.. do share if you have setup such a URL shortner for your website..
YOURLS is developed by Planetozh and his contribution towards Wordpress community is really awesome and this plugin is a landmark in his recent developments. Thanks Harsh for sharing this tutorial over here.
great article, thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the article and sharing the Yourls.org stuff. I set it up and skinned it on a stand alone domain I have and one of these days will find time to integrate into my WP. Had to password protect it after it got noticed by the spambots but otherwise works great.