Do URL Shorteners Pass PageRank?
Because so many people use social networking sites like Twitter these days, which limit you to 140 characters, people turn to URL shorteners in order to save space. But since Google especially now includes these sites in their index, you might wonder if PageRank gets passed from these URL shorteners to the website you’re linking to.
After all, if you’re linking to one of your own sites, you want any PageRank to pass along to your own site, you need to be especially careful when you’re choosing a URL shortener so that this does in fact occur.
This has been a question in many SEO’s minds for quite some time. Before Google started indexing sites like Twitter, it really wasn’t all that big of a deal. But now that Twitter, as well as many other sites like them are getting indexed more and more frequently, it’s important that if a page does follow a link that the shortener that was used passes along that PageRank.
That said, it should be noted that Twitter does not follow links – therefore the PageRank theory is null and void in this case but this does not mean that other services like Twitter don’t employ the same tactic. I use them as an example only because it’s one of the more well-known micro-blogging platforms online. As a matter of fact, there are many, many places where you would employ the use of a URL shortener and when you do, you want to make certain that you are getting any and all PageRank passed on to you.
Most URL shorteners are pretty good at this and do it the correct way by using a 301 redirect. In case you’re still unsure which one to use, in the video below Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Web Spam team specifically says that shorteners such as bit.ly and goo.gl do in fact employ a 301 redirect.
Here’s the question that came into Matt and his answer on the topic: