This screen displays a Short Link and its properties.
Name: | Enter the name for the Short Link (no spaces please). This will be the name in the address that you give to people. This must be unique. The name is not case-sensitive, so if the name is "example", then Visitors will be able to access the Short Link at both "example" and "Example". |
Destination Type: | Select the type of item that you want the Short Link to forward to. |
Page/Catalog Page/Catalog Detail Page: | Select the Page that you want the Short Link to forward to. If the Short Link is forwarding to a Page, then select any Page. If the Short Link is forwarding to a Product Group, then you should either select a Catalog Page or a Catalog Detail Page, based on where you want the Product Group to appear. If the Short Link is forwarding to a Product, then select a Catalog Detail Page. |
Product Group: | If you selected "Product Group" for the Destination Type, then select the Product Group that you want the Short Link to forward to. |
Product: | If you selected "Product" for the Destination Type, then select the Product that you want the Short Link to forward to. |
URL: |
If you selected "URL" for the Destination Type, then enter the URL that you want the Short Link to forward to. This allows you to forward a Visitor to any URL at your website (e.g. pages/form_item_view?r=123, files/example.pdf, or etc.) or to a URL at an external website (e.g. http://www.example.com/example.html). This is useful if you want to create a Short Link to a blog article or maybe a Short Link to a File. If you want to forward to a URL at the same website, it is recommended that you use a URL without the scheme, hostname, and path. For example, use "pages/example" instead of "http://www.example.com/pages/example" and instead of "/pages/example". This will allow your Short Links to continue to work if your hostname or path changes. One exception is if your website runs on IIS on Windows, then you might have to include the path (e.g. "/pages/example"). If you want the address in the Visitor's address bar to change to the destination URL, you can use a full URL (http://www.example.com/pages/example). This even works if you are simply linking to a URL at this same website, instead of an external website. Alternatively, if you use a local URL (e.g. pages/example) the address in the Visitor's address bar will not change. One exception is if your website runs on IIS on Windows, then the address in the Visitor's address bar will always change for the URL destination type. Unlike Page, Product Group, and Product destination types, Short Links with a URL destination type are not automatically managed by the system. This means that if a Page name changes or etc., you will have to manually update the Short Link. If you want to include a tracking code in the destination URL, then you will need to add it to the destination URL (e.g. pages/example?t=example). There is not a separate field for the tracking code for this destination type. For this destination type, query string paramenters are not carried over from the Short Link URL to the destination URL. For example, if the Visitor visits a Short Link at "/short_link?name=value", the Visitor will be forwarded to the destination URL without the "?name=value" part. However, you can manually include query string parameters in the destination URL if you want. |
Tracking Code: |
For Page, Product Group, and Product destination types, you have the option of adding a tracking code so that the system will remember that a Visitor came from that Short Link. Tracking codes can then be viewed in various areas of the system (e.g. Visitor/Order reports). This allows you to setup marketing campaigns and do A/B testing. For example, you could setup two Short Links that forward to the same Page, Product Group, or Product (e.g. example.com/campaign1 and example.com/campaign2) and then determine which campaign was more effective. If a tracking code appears in the address (e.g. example.com/short_link?t=tracking_code), then it will override the value that you enter in this field. For the URL destination type, if you want to include a tracking code, then you will need to include it manually in the destination URL (e.g. pages/example?t=example). |