Can I use a URL shortener from the SEO point of view?
Wrong email or password! Try one more time.

Forgot password?

An account with this email already exists.

An email with a confirmation link has been sent to you.

Did you forget your password? Don't panic. Enter your email address,
and we will email you a link where you may create a new password.

If this address exists, we will send you an email with further instructions.

Back to authentication

How are shortened URLs treated by search engines?

How are shortened URLs treated by search engines? - answered by Matt Cutts

Summary:

Google does flow PageRank for shortened URLs if they use a 301 permanent redirect as it flows all 301 redirects. But if they do another kind of redirect there could be some problems. So if you make sure your shortened links flow page rank find out if they do a 301 redirect or another redirect.

 

Matt's answer:

Let me take the mention of tinyurl.com and substitute URL-shorteners in general. The answer is whenever we crawl one of these links if they do a 301: yes we do follow those and flow the PageRank as we normally would with a 301 from any other site.

 

Danny Sullivan did a really great piece  about URL-shortening services where he took the top URL-shortening  services like tinyurl.com, bitly and sort of said, ok, do they do a  301-redirect or do they do some  other sort of redirect.

 

If a service does a 301-redirect we should flow all the PageRank

Just as we do with any other sort of 301-redirect. With URL-shortening services that do that correctly, we should be able to follow that and find the destination URL with no problem whatsoever.

by Matt Cutts - Google's Head of Search Quality Team

 

Original video: