Search engine positioning is all about creating valuable content for your readers, and getting high quality backlinks for that material in order to increase your search engine rankings. URL shortening and SEO often go hand in hand, but there is a bit of misinformation and misconception circulating about how the two interact. The points of this article are going to discuss include the possible loss of and link juice, if URL shortening services are used, how shortening URLs can benefit your SEO campaign, and the role of 301 redirects.
Potential Loss of Link Value
Link value, also commonly known as link juice is the amount of influence a particular backlink has on improving your search engine rankings. There are many factors in the amount of a particular backlink which influence your website and ranking in the search engines. Some of the factors include if the site has DoFollow or NoFollow links and how many other outbound links are featured on the particular webpage.
Another important aspect to consider is whether your URL has been shortened or left in the original state. Shortened URLs are often penalized by Google’s algorithms. URLs that remain in the original state, even if they are long, receive credits by Google allowing them to count as more powerful backlinks. While you can use URL shortening services for your links, doing so is putting at risk some of the valuable link juice that is so important to rank a website in competitive niches.
Sometimes URL shortening benefit and complement SEO. One of the biggest benefits of shortening the URLs you give is the ability to track each individual link that has been shortened. You can also customize your links instead of using the default link, which the shortening service gives you. Shortened links are much easier to use in social bookmarking programs that are essential to improve your ranking. Some URL shortening services allow you to customize shortened URLs and incorporate security codes into them for added security. They can also be customized to reflect the particular keywords you are targeting in your internet marketing campaign.
301 Redirects
Some marketers shorten URLs for completely different purposes and use them for 301 redirects to a particular website. A 301 redirect is when a link shows a page that notifies the user that the link has been redirected and after a few seconds, the user is taken to the new link. This is often used when a website creates a new address and you must notify your customers about the change. The shortened URLs can sometimes be used as 301 redirects depending on what the shortening service was used and what the original URL was.
