WP.me domain short links is a great way to access the posts in a blog. They act as an alternative to using external URL shortening services like bit.ly and goo.gl. After activating Jetpack, this service is attached to your blog. When WP.me shortening service is activated in Jetpack, each and every post will have a short URL. They will be generated automatically.
Such short URLs can be used in social sites like twitter with character limits. They are easier to share socially when compared to the long and defining post permalinks that is great for search engine rankings.
Activating Short Links
Here’s how to activate WP.me short links and retrieve them for each post:
- Activate Jetpack and visit Jetpack > Settings in your admin area.
- List all the Jetpack features and activate the one that says me Shortlinks.
Getting Short Links
To get the short link, the post should either be published or saved as a draft. Then right below the post title area, in the post compose page, you will see a Get Shortlink button.
Click on it and you get a shortlink like: http://wp.me/p5YHt8-2Z .
Another way to get the short link is by viewing the source code of the post. To view the source code of any page, press CTRL + U in Google Chrome or FireFox.
In the source code we will need to find a code that looks something like:
<link rel='shortlink' href='http://wp.me/p5YHt8-1B' />
The href=” part contains the value of the link which is again, http://wp.me/p5YHt8-1B.
If we open it in a web browser, it will redirect to a specific post. The redirection is successful only after a post is published.
If Jetpack or the short link feature is not activated, then the Get Shortlink button and the view source method will just provide you the ugly permalink i.e. http://yoursite.com/?p=185. It is still short and redirects to your post. But it is not the best choice when it comes to using a short link.