Masked web links are stuck being generic, we require the ability to pick the icon.

I once suggested the telnic proxy should allow us to post 'masked' links and still retain the icon and that it would require something to check the links, masked links are an important feature .tel needs to support, as companies and individuals might use sub domains of another TLD branded url to mask forwarders or shorten links and not want to give away page rank if it applies to this situation or shorten how visitors reach their brand/tweets/posts etc on social accounts through a .tel 'gateway' or use another tld to bring google traffic to their .tel or other sites for search terms like 'who/twitter/info', 'who/facebook/info'.

It's also quicker for people to type it out if not using a .tel later, a bit like how fb.com forwards to facebook.com but the .tel proxy would never detect fb.com is a masked url to facebook.

For instance I use a .info that matches my .tel to hide the links as I don't have the @bunjie twitter account it would be awkward to post something on the front of my main .tel that doesn't maintain some kind of 'similar' keyword pattern, and even though @fustachio is still me and relates to my .tel I do prefer it's hidden behind my .info.

As also this allows people to type it from memory as 'I'm looking for bunjies twitter info' aka 3 keywords: http://twitter.bunjie.info vs https://twitter.com/Fustachio

I used to shorten them with 2 letter sub domains to maintain a set url size eg.

http://fb.bunjie.info http://tw.bunjie.info vs https://www.facebook.com/mr.fustachio?sk=app_190322544333196

The simplest solution would be for telnic to allow developers who want to insert and rotate/change out masked links, to tag links as (t) for twitter, (f) for facebook or with a number and allow us in the CP under the 'weblink' drop down to pick another box to set what icon should show so I can have my cake and eat it because otherwise I loose out on having any prominent icons and am stuck with generic web links that don't stand out other than with the keyword pattern.

I need the icon so it registers with their mind as 'HAY IT'S HIS TWITTER' at single a glance then they read it as twitter.bunjie.info and hopefully remember that at a later date when they want to look up my twitter if they don't go back to my .tel which would be simpler but I would like to get the 3 keywords sunk in someones head not least the google ranking of it which should help if someone googles 'twitter/bunjie/info' and come up with my .tel, because that's all we have with .tel 3-5 seconds of attention before they're supposed to move on, bigger directories will have higher 'stay time' but most of us want to push them onto the right link asap.

Indeed, important topic and great suggestion!

TelTalk wrote:Indeed, important topic and great suggestion!

Maybe the terms longtail keyword masking, and might be a good way to keyword stuff a .tel page to get it ranking for certain terms without making Google see it as 'less relevant' because it doesn't have the primary information on it (of an affiliate product etc) and only links to it but as long as it's a highly organized re-direct Google should like it and add extra weight for certain search terms?, is that blackhat?

I know we have long tail sub domains and I use some myself but we can take that premise and apply it to pages that don't necessarily have a full corresponding longtail keyword setup? and use the re-directs as a search anchor?

Perhaps if you want to have affiliates having keyword structured re-directs rather than direct links would make Google see it less as spam and advertising and more as 'quality content'.

I goggled yesterday 'twitter bunjie info' my .tel came up 4th and my twitter came up 1st but that could be because it's on a keyword specific re-direct with confirmation keywords at the other end, but even though Google put my twitter 1st I'm sure if we used keyword masked domains like buy.something.site it's better than something.something.number.number.letter.number.number.letter.number.number.number.number.number.number.letter.?.letter.letter.letter.

But then I probably don't know what I'm talking about and really just like having it neat and tidy of which at this present time it's not.

I'm double posting my bad, I want to follow on from what I saying without editing etc.

As social networks may occasionally ban you for odd reasons, and say you need to setup a new account well that's no problem and you then put that back into your .tel so you can be found.

But if you all ready had a keyword domain that Google loved and knew was directing people to your twitter or social account it might help transfer that PR and keywords over to another social name that does not necessarily rank well for your original name before you mask it with the redirect which gives it some existing PR and wont clutter up your .tel or confuse someone if you're now known as twitter.com/bigsue and your 'brand' that covers it is 'suevation' .

Aka suevaton.tel > twitter.suevaton.info.
Or
Aka suevaton.tel > twitter.com/bigsue.

I think I'd go with the .info so no matter what my social network id changes too, I'm always twitter.bunjie.info in search rankings and eye glances, just like .tel is supposed to be your 'one' handle or name no matter what the sub data changes too.

I prefer they find out after they click it and follow me and not completely before.