Automatically advertise shortlinks on your blog's domain using WordPress native ID forwarding.
As of WordPress 3.0, most of this plugin's original features have been incorporated into WordPress itself. WordPress adds shortlinks to most pages by default. This plugin simply adds a settings page where you can easily make some minor adjustments.
WordPress shortlinks are useful for micro-blogging, by using your own domain instead of a 3rd-party short URL service.
The URLs are automatically added to the HTTP and HTML headers of each post, page, attachment, and category.
A template tag enables you to display a human-readable link in addition to the automatically generated headers. Use of human-readable links is highly encouraged, because Google is known to favor them and rank them higher than some longer URLs. This has the effect of boosting the rank of URLs that were deemed "too long" by Google's standards. Also, in many mobile web browsers, the easiest way for a visitor to find a short link is by seeing it somewhere on the page.
The template tag idea can be extended further with CSS code for print media, which could ensure that each article's short link URL is printed along with the article. This will make it much easier for the user to return to the article after reading a hard copy.
FAQ
Can I see a sample of your short url for wordpress?
Yes. You can see this plugin live on my personal blog. For example:
miqrogroove.com?p=1122
That short link will forward to a specific post permalink from a January 2013 article. Here is an example of a category short link:
miqrogroove.com?cat=12
This plugin is also compatible with qTranslate, so you can see paths like /zh/?p=4517 when both plugins are installed.
http://blogyul.miqrogroove.com/zh/?p=4517
Notice how much longer the permalinks may become when the short links are clicked!
Is it only the page or the post url that it shortens?
Short Links are extra URLs that get forwarded to the normal URLs. The existing URLs stay the same.
This does work for:
- Posts
- Pages
- Attachments
- Categories
This particular plugin does not make short links for:
- Tags
- Image files
- Other websites
Does it take the header as the description?
Activating this plugin adds two invisible links to each post. That part of the protocol does not involve descriptions.
The template tag, when added to your theme, does use a normal hyperlink with a title description.
The template tag is customizable.
How do I use the template tag?
You can add something as simple as this inside the single post template and/or the post loop:
<?php the_shortlink('Short Link'); ?>
ChangeLog
1.6.1
- Minor updates, released 23 November 2012.
- Cosmetic improvements on the settings page.
- WordPress 3.5-RC1 tested.
- WordPress 3.6 tested 7 August 2013.
- WordPress 3.7.1 tested 31 October 2013.
- WordPress 3.8-RC1 tested 8 December 2013.
- WordPress 3.9-RC1 tested 10 April 2014.
1.6
- New features, released 3 November 2012.
- Added a settings page for advanced configuration.
- Links can be slightly shorter in some cases.
- Links can be disabled by content type.
- Either of the header types can be disabled.
1.5
- Minor updates, released 5 January 2012.
- WordPress minimum raised to 3.0 from 2.6.
- WordPress 3.2.1 tested.
- WordPress 3.3.3 tested. 8 Sep 2012.
- WordPress 3.4.2 tested. 9 Sep 2012.
1.4.1
- Alpha compatibility, released 12 March 2010
- Template tag the_shortlink() is now in core. 🙂
- WordPress 3.1.4 tested 21 July 2011.
1.4
- Alpha compatibility, released 10 March 2010
- Fixed cosmetic linefeed issue in XHTML headers.
- Header hooks updated for yesterday’s core changes.
1.3
- New features, released 11 February 2010
- Added short link support for categories.
- WordPress minimum raised to 2.6 from 2.5.
- WordPress 3.0-alpha tested 15 February 2010
1.2
- Minor bug fix, released 29 December 2009
- Always include a slash before ?p=
- FAQ Added
- WordPress 2.9.1-RC1 tested.
1.1
- Added a template tag, released 26 December 2009
1.0
- First version, released 24 December 2009
