With programs you need follow up on their terms and conditions to what's allowed and what is not cloaking links. In some instances it may render your affiliations void if you do not follow.

However generally speaking, a shorter or customized one is easier to remember vs a long URL. How To Use Pretty Links How To Edit Pretty Links

One advantage of Pretty Links that not everyone understands is that it turns what would be an external link to an internal one, at least as far as the search engines are concerned. This has some advantages.

Some places may have shortened urls because lack of character space. Also, some use to cloak urls (affiliate links) as Frank mentioned.

Unless you are wanting to shorten for looks (If so use a pretty links as Todd mentioned), I wouldn’t worry too much about the length of the url and don’t believe there really is a benefit to either. More of a preference or allotment of character space where you are wanting to place your URL.

Hi, Nikki

I believe that Amazon does not want you to “cloak” links, but they provide you with both short and long links for their products.

Other than that, I am not aware of a distinct advantage of using one verses the other.

Frank

I do, from time to time, have that problem. I have to take a break and return to it, and I always find out the problem. The focus keyword, or keyphrase, has to be in your title, the SEO title, and the meta title. The words must match and ensure it's in the H2 and H3 and the first sentence in the first paragraph. Sometimes the SEO can be aggravating, stay calm, walk away, and come back and you will have figured out the problem. At least this has worked for me. I hope this is helpful for you.

Hi, Nikki

If you're using AIO SEO, the Focus Keyword field helps you double-check to ensure you have an internal & external link, keyword in the first paragraph, etc.

So it is simply a tool to help you include all the relevant things and proper grammar (transition words, etc.) you need for good on-page SEO. If this field is not filled in, it won't make any other difference as far as the search engines are concerned.

Frank

Not sure which SEO plugin you are using.
But the message is telling you to enter a keyword so the SEO plugin can give you some ideas on how to optimize your post. If you follow the WA training and apply it you do not need to be concerned about those warning messages. The message you are getting is not one that should stop you from continuing to create new content posts. You cannot predict when your posts will be indexed and ranked. But they will be and you are doing what you need to do to keep on writing new ones.

Don't even worry about indexing. It happens inevitably when you continue to create content. One thing you can do is request Google to index it via the url inspector inside Google search console. All it does is nudge Google a little bit, but it's nothing to even worry about. You're doing great.

Keep up the good work!

The message you are getting is probably from the SEO plugin you are using (ie All in one SEO or Rank math). This is just a "warning" from the plugin that you have not set the SEO keyword so it cannot score your article properly.

It does not affect your indexing. To get you article indexed you have to tell Google by entering your article's URL to the search console.