Name: Go2
Author: Go2

"It's just a redirect. How much could speed really matter?"

We get this question a lot. And the answer might surprise you.

TL;DR: Go2 redirects in under 10ms — that's 10x faster than traditional shorteners. This isn't just about bragging rights. Faster links mean higher conversions, better mobile experience, and more trust from your audience.

The Invisible Tax

Every time someone clicks your shortened link, there's a delay. They wait while the shortener looks up where to send them, then redirects to the destination.

Most shorteners take about 100 milliseconds. That doesn't sound like much. But consider this:

Studies show that every 100ms of delay costs you 1% in conversions
Mobile users are especially sensitive to lag — cellular networks amplify every delay
Click-through rates drop as friction increases
Multiply by thousands of clicks and the impact becomes significant

The Math That Matters

Let's break this down with real numbers:

If your link campaign gets 10,000 clicks and your shortener adds 100ms each time, you're potentially losing 100+ conversions. With an average order value of $50, that's $5,000 left on the table — just from redirect latency.

For high-volume campaigns with millions of clicks, the impact is even more dramatic. Every millisecond counts when you're operating at scale.

The Go2 Difference: 10ms vs 100ms

Go2 redirects in under 10 milliseconds. That's 10x faster than typical shorteners.

How? We don't run servers. We run at the edge.

What "Edge" Really Means

Traditional shorteners work like this:

You click a link in Tokyo
The request travels across the Pacific to a server in Virginia
The server queries a database for the destination
It processes any tracking or analytics
It sends back a redirect response
Your browser finally goes where you wanted

That round trip adds latency. Sometimes 200-300ms on high-latency networks.

Go2 works differently:

You click a link in Tokyo
A Cloudflare edge location in Tokyo handles everything
You're redirected instantly

We run in 310+ locations worldwide. There's almost always one near your visitor — often in the same city.

Geographic Coverage

Our edge network spans:

North America: 40+ cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto
Europe: 50+ cities including London, Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam
Asia Pacific: 60+ cities including Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney, Mumbai
Latin America: 20+ cities including São Paulo, Mexico City
Africa & Middle East: 25+ cities including Johannesburg, Dubai

This means your visitors get sub-10ms redirects whether they're in New York or Nairobi.

Real Numbers, Real Impact

We measured redirect times across major shorteners from multiple global locations:

Shortener	Average Time	P99 Latency
Bitly	95ms	180ms
Rebrandly	110ms	220ms
Short.io	85ms	160ms
TinyURL	140ms	280ms
Go2	8ms	15ms

That's not a typo. We're genuinely 10-15x faster than the competition.

Methodology

We tested each service from:

10 global locations (US East, US West, Europe, Asia, etc.)
1,000 requests per location
Measured both average and P99 (99th percentile) latency
Tested during peak and off-peak hours

Go2 was consistently faster across all locations and time periods.

Beyond Raw Speed

Speed is about more than bragging rights. It's about real business outcomes:

Trust

Fast links feel reliable. When a user clicks and immediately lands where they expected, it builds confidence. Slow links feel sketchy — users wonder if something's wrong or if they're being tracked excessively.

Mobile Experience

On cellular networks, every millisecond is amplified. 3G and 4G connections already add significant latency. A fast shortener minimizes the total time to destination. With 5G adoption growing, users expect instant experiences.

SEO Implications

Search engines notice redirect chains. While Google has stated that 301 redirects pass PageRank, faster redirects are still better for:

Crawl budget — Googlebot can process more of your links
User signals — Faster experiences lead to lower bounce rates
Core Web Vitals — Speed matters for ranking

Conversions

Less friction means more people complete the journey. Studies from Amazon, Google, and Walmart have consistently shown:

Amazon: Every 100ms of latency costs 1% in sales
Google: 500ms delay causes 20% drop in traffic
Walmart: Every 100ms improvement increases revenue by 1%

Your shortened links are part of this equation.

The Technical Details

For the technically curious, here's how we achieve sub-10ms redirects:

Edge Computing Architecture

Our code runs in Cloudflare's global network, not centralized servers. When you click a Go2 link:

DNS resolution happens at the nearest Cloudflare data center
Worker execution starts immediately — no cold start
KV lookup retrieves the destination in microseconds
Response sent with minimal headers

The entire process happens in a single data center, often in the same city as the user.

Zero Cold Starts

Unlike traditional serverless functions (AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Functions), Cloudflare Workers have no cold start penalty:

Workers run on V8 isolates, not containers
Isolates spin up in < 1ms
Multiple isolates share the same runtime
Always-warm execution environment

This means your first click is just as fast as your millionth.

Optimized Data Storage

Link data is cached at the edge using Cloudflare KV:

Global replication — Data is copied to every edge location
Eventual consistency — Updates propagate within seconds
Microsecond reads — Lookups happen in < 1ms
Unlimited scale — Handle billions of reads per day

Minimal Response Overhead

Our redirect response is tiny — just the essentials:

HTTP/2 301 Moved Permanently
Location: https://destination.com/page
Content-Length: 0

No bloated headers. No unnecessary cookies. No tracking scripts in the redirect chain.

Speed + Everything Else

Being fast doesn't mean sacrificing features. Go2 gives you:

Full analytics on every click — locations, devices, referrers, time series
Custom domains with automatic SSL — use your own branded domain
AI-generated QR codes — beautiful, customizable QR codes
Retargeting pixel support — integrate with Facebook, Google, LinkedIn
Conversion tracking — measure what matters
Team collaboration — manage links across your organization
API access — automate everything programmatically

All without slowing down. Your links are still instant because analytics processing happens asynchronously after the redirect.

How We Measure Performance

Transparency is core to Go2. Here's how we continuously monitor our performance:

Real User Monitoring

We collect anonymized timing data from actual redirects:

Time to first byte (TTFB)
Total redirect time
Geographic distribution of latency

Synthetic Monitoring

We run automated tests every minute from 20+ global locations:

Consistent baseline measurements
Alerting on performance regressions
Historical trend analysis

Public Status Page

Our status page shows real-time performance metrics:

Current P50/P95/P99 latency
Uptime percentage (99.99%+)
Incident history

Try the Difference

Don't take our word for it. Try it yourself:

Create a link on Go2 — takes 5 seconds
Create the same link on any other shortener
Click both and feel the difference

It's subtle, but once you notice it, you can't un-notice it. The Go2 link just feels instant.

Quick Test

Try these two links right now:

Our demo link: go2.gg/speed-test
Compare to any Bitly link you have

Open your browser's developer tools (Network tab) and compare the redirect times. The difference is measurable.

Conclusion

Speed isn't a nice-to-have — it's a competitive advantage. Every millisecond you save translates to:

Higher conversion rates
Better user experience
More trust from your audience
Improved SEO signals

Go2 is built from the ground up for speed. We're not retrofitting performance onto an old architecture. We started with the fastest possible foundation and built features on top.

Want to make your links faster? Get started with Go2 — it's free and takes 30 seconds.