URL Shortening Giant Bitly Will Provide Click Data to Moz

Bitly, the Internet’s URL shortening leader, announced today that it will provide data and click-tracking technology to Moz.

Moz’s optimization software previously used link data from Twitter to rank web pages’ social media relevance but it is turning to Bitly to get a more complete picture of user behavior.

“The Bitly click dataset is hands down the broadest and most authoritative available to anyone looking for information on how their content and brand is performing across the web,” Moz co-founder Rand Fishkin said in a news release.

Bitly, which made the announcement from the South By Southwest Interactive festival in Austin, Texas, also announced two additions to its executive team. Rob Platzer, formerly of AOL’s Patch and Outside.In, is the chief technical officer and Melissa Wallace, formerly of Buddy Media, is vice president of marketing.

CEO Mark Josephson, who joined the company last summer, said the partnership with Moz is part of Bitly’s effort to unlock more value from data supplied by the 600 million active Bitly profiles.

“I think people sometimes take Bitly for granted as the shortener for the web,” Josephson said. He said Bitly is working to change that perception by reminding marketers to about how useful the data can be for understanding customer preferences. Among the changes on the way is a resigned dashboard that will more clearly display the comparison between a brand’s social efforts and organic sharing.