Bitly Survey of 1,507 Americans: 79% Abandon Links That Land on Homepages

By Nathan Brooks

A Bitly survey of 1,507 Americans finds 79% of consumers have abandoned an action because a social link dropped them on a generic homepage instead of the featured product. The report, "The Click Expectation Report," was published Sept. 29 on the Bitly blog by Jenny Coppola, Bitly's senior director of brand and content. It surveyed 1,006 U.S. consumers and 501 U.S. marketers and creators between July 27 and Aug. 5, 2026.

The vendor angle is real: a link management company concluded that audiences need link management. But the consumer data inside carries more weight than the sales pitch wrapped around it.

What did SEOs get right about short links?

The traditional case against short links holds up partially. When Bitly asked consumers what makes them hesitate before clicking, 23% named generic shorteners that hide the brand's name.

That number sits near the bottom of the list. Safety or security concerns topped it at 57%. Clickbait-feeling links followed at 52%. Vague destination descriptions drew 44%, and content-destination mismatch drew 42%.

Long URLs packed with tracking characters bothered 28% of consumers — five points more than generic shorteners, inside the margin of error. The UTM-heavy URLs posted to protect attribution look no better to consumers than the bit.ly links SEOs tell clients to avoid.

What does the data say about branded links?

48% of consumers said a custom branded short link builds the recognition that makes them comfortable clicking. That was the survey's top factor. It beat personal trust in the sharer (44%) and clear copy explaining the destination (43%).

The link equity objection died long ago. Google's Matt Cutts said in a 2011 Webmaster Help video that shorteners using 301 redirects pass PageRank like any other 301, as Search Engine Journal reported.

The ownership objection still has teeth. Google announced in 2024 that its goo.gl short links would stop working on Aug. 25, 2025, then reversed course weeks before the deadline for links still seeing activity. If Google nearly broke its own short links, any vendor can break yours — an argument for a branded short domain the company owns.

Why is the homepage the bigger leak?

Only 8% of consumers expect a social video link to land on a homepage. 61% expect a product page. Yet 39% of marketers and 30% of creators named the generic homepage as a top destination, and 34% across both groups admitted their social video links usually route there.

The abandonment list reads like a technical SEO audit:

• Excessive redirects or browser security warnings: 76%
• Promised promo code missing from the page: 76%
• Forced app installs or app store redirects: 69%
• Pages not built for mobile: 51%
• Wrong region, language, or currency: 49%

The mobile figure splits sharply by age. Only 41% of Baby Boomers abandoned non-mobile pages, versus 61% to 62% of Millennials and Gen Z. iOS users bailed more than Android users, 57% vs. 47%.

A short link adds a hop. If that hop leads to a tracking redirect, then a regional redirect, then an app store prompt, that chain matches what 76% of consumers say makes them leave.

Why are 93% withholding clicks on purpose?

93% of consumers said they avoided clicking a link on purpose to keep their algorithm from serving more of that content. 43% do it always or often. Among Gen Z and Millennials, that rises to 45%.

Click-through rate has always stood in for interest. This survey suggests a large share of interested people decline clicks precisely because they know the tap will be counted and used to profile them — a pattern that fits what SEOs already see in zero-click search and AI answers.

Which platforms do consumers trust?

LinkedIn led link-trust at 19%. YouTube, Instagram, and Reddit tied at 17% each — a four-way statistical tie at the consumer sample's ±3.1-point margin of error.

The generational splits matter more:

• Instagram: Gen Z's top pick at 33%, nearly double Millennials' 18%
• LinkedIn: climbed with age, topping Gen X (22%) and Boomers (24%)
• TikTok: fell every generation, from 12% among Gen Z to 2% among Boomers
• Reddit: Millennials' choice at 21%

Brands out-trusted independent creators on six of seven link types. The widest gap: app or software downloads, 88% brand vs. 12% creator. Curated resource lists split 50/50.

How broken is attribution?

Marketers and creators expect links in social profiles and content to drive an average of 39% of revenue over the next 12 months. Tracking difficulty across channels topped the challenge list at 36% (marketers 41%, creators 30%). Connecting platform analytics to campaign data tripped up 29% of marketers versus 17% of creators. In-app browsers stripping parameters hit creators harder, 27% vs. 18%.

Marketers lean on native link tracking in social platforms (39%); creators lean on post-purchase surveys (33%). Marketers use manual UTMs nearly three times as often, 23% vs. 8%. 10% of creators and 3% of marketers measure nothing.

For SEOs, stripped social clicks reappear as direct or unattributed traffic, muddying every channel report next to organic.

How reliable is the methodology?

The survey used an opt-in online panel with unweighted results. Bitly's stated margins of error assume a simple random sample, which an opt-in panel is not. The 2.3x click lift for custom domains comes from sales copy, not the survey. Quote findings as "Bitly's survey found," not "consumers say."

Monitor whether homepage-destination abandonment and deliberate click-withholding grow in future consumer studies — those two numbers move the most revenue.