URL Shortening and SEO

Search engine optimization is all about creating valuable content for your readers, and getting high quality backlinks to that material in order to increase your rankings in the search engines. URL shortening and SEO oftentimes go hand-in-hand, but there is quite a bit of misinformation and misconceptions going around about how the two interact. The points this article will discuss include the potential loss of “link juice” if URL shortening services are used, how shortening your URLs can benefit your SEO campaign, and all about 301 redirects. Potential Loss of Link Value Link value, also commonly referred to as “link juice” is the amount of influence a particular backlink has on improving your rankings in the search engines. There are many factors on how much a particular backlink will influence your website’s ranking in the search engines. Some of the factors include the PageRank of the site the link was posted on - if the website is DoFollow or NoFollow, and how many other outgoing links are featured on the particular page your backlink was posted on. Another important aspect to take into consideration is whether you have shortened your URL or left them in original condition. Shortened URLs are often penalized by Google’s ranking algorithms. URLs that are left in original condition, even if they are long were given credits by Google allowing them to count as a more powerful backlink. While you can use URL shortening services on your backlinks, doing so is putting at risk some of the valuable link juice which is so important for ranking a website in competitive niches. Benefit your SEO Sometimes URL shortening and SEO benefit are complementing each other. One of the biggest benefit shortening your URLs gives you is the ability to track each individual link that has been shortened. You can also customize your links instead of using the default link the shortening service gives you. Shortened links are much easier to use in social bookmarking programs which are essential for giving your improved rankings. Some URL shortening services allow you to customize your shortened URLs and incorporate security codes in them for added security. They can also be customized to reflect the particular keywords you are targeting in your advertising and internet marketing campaigns. 301 Redirects Some marketers use shortened URLs for entirely different purposes – they use them for 301 redirects to a particular web page on the internet. A 301 redirect is when a link displays a page which 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 gets a new address and it must notify their customers about the change. Shortened URLs can sometimes be used as 301 redirects depending on what shortening service was used and what the original URL was. Benefits of URL Shortening and SEO Below are some of the benefits you will gain when you combine URL shortening in your SEO campaigns: • Easier bookmarking – There are many social bookmarking websites on the internet that allow you to post a variety of links that point to blogs or other information. Your shortened URLs can be bookmarked on these websites for an increase in rankings. • Access to social media – Certain social media websites such as Twitter allows a maximum of 140 words in each tweet. You can circumvent this restriction by using a URL shortening service which will reduce your URL size, allowing for it to be posted. • Customization – Shortened URLs can often be customized and outfitted with tracking codes and security codes, making them useful tools for any webmaster that wants to gauge how well their links are doing as far as attracting customers and getting clicks. URL shortening is the process of turning an abnormally long URL into a short and easy to use URL that can be remembered. URL shortening and SEO are closely related, and the two intertwine quite often. Using URL shortening services is an easy way to compress your URLs, allowing them to be posted on social media websites and bookmarking websites. This will increase your online presence and gives you valuable backlinks which build your rankings in the major search engines.