Bitly Survey Suggests Short Links Explain Only Part of SEO Click-Through Gaps
TLDR
A Bitly survey indicates SEOs should look beyond short links to address mismatched landing pages and reconsider what click-through rates actually show.
Optimixed Overview
Optimixed's original report on this story.
Bitly's survey suggests that SEOs should look past short links when diagnosing performance, focusing instead on mismatched landing pages and on what click-through rates really reveal. The findings, as first reported by Search Engine Journal, frame short links as only part of the picture.
How we got here
- Oct 17Rank tracker logs Google indexing gaps; ChatGPT tracking tags disappear; Google and Bing update AI search links
Rank trackers detected indexing fluctuations on Google, ChatGPT lost tracking parameters on some links, and Google and Bing altered their AI search result links.
- Oct 15Nearly half of marketers plan to reduce SEO investment, citing AI and content quality trade-offs
A Typeface survey of 500+ marketing leaders found 49% plan to deprioritize SEO, with 62% reporting brands sacrifice content quality for AI citations.
- Sep 28Court Filing Cites OpenAI Engineer's Claim That Generative Chat Users Won't Click Links
An OpenAI engineer's court filing claims users of generative chat interfaces won't click links, backed by Microsoft data showing lower CTRs in Bing Chat versus traditional search.
- Sep 23Baidu Now Measures AI Citations with Click-Through Rate Based on Citations Rather Than Impressions
Baidu's new AI Traffic Analysis report measures click-through rate by dividing clicks by citations rather than impressions, creating a different engagement metric for AI-driven results.