Do URL Shorteners impact your SEO?

[kavyasharma561]

Hi folks,

I heard SEO people said that the shorter URL the better SEO you will get for that page. Is it true? does any make this clear for me?

[transcendtorontoseo]

No I don't think there is any validity to that. The only thing that shorter url looks like they change is the anchor text (which will be the shortened url)

[supergolfer]

As Facebook and Twitter usage goes through the roof so does the use we make of URL shorteners. These fall into two categories, those we use ourselves to shorten a URL so we can post it on Twitter and not exceed the 140 character limit and those which social networks automatically employ every time an item is promoted outside their own systems.


The burning question here is, do these hurt your SEO? The news is good all the way here and the implications even better. According to Google’s SEO voice, Matt Cutts, using URL shorteners has absolutely no negative impact on SEO provided the URL shortener in question is functioning properly and treats the conversion as a 301 redirect.

This should alert you to one potential pitfall, if you use a chain conversion of URL shorteners (unlikely but you never know when you might be tempted to experiment) you are essentially setting up a daisy chain of 301 redirects which might present a few issues (with BING at least).

[Demanrick]

Absolutely YES, and exists many reasons for this. I will list below some of the main reasons to convince  that short URLs have a great SEO impact :
firstly doesn't look great a long URL
it's hard to read and remember
you can't include in an advertising spot
to spread a long URL you have to be more careful at the breaks, etc.

[Neel Patel]

Even if it is not short, better URL optimization can help your SEO!

[Rattan11]

As we all know, some social media, like Twitter, have a character limit so you have to be concise and relevant when posting a tweet. Using a URL shortener can thus help you to put more accurate information about the content that you are posting instead of having a tweet with a really long URL. It is also possible to brand a URL so that you know if the content has been shared by a company or a brand in particular.

Shortened URLs have more aesthetic appeal
URL shorteners are definitely useful when it comes to making your URL look prettier, especially, as we mentioned above, when sharing your content on social media. But they can be also useful when you are producing other types of content like a print ad or an infographic and you want to insert your link in a nice way. Moreover, if your readers are using a mobile to view your content, they are going to enjoy a better user experience if they see a shorter URL in it.

URL shorteners can come with traffic monitors
For anyone curious about the behaviour of their content and how it was received by users, some URL shorteners, like the well-known Bitly, allow you to track the sharing activities of your post/tweet over a specific period.
However it is important to see if these URL shorteners are not detrimental to your SEO. Indeed, the more your content is shared, the better, and it would be a shame if the one published with a shortened URL wasn’t recognized by search engine algorithms.

[heenamajeed]

As per Google's SEO voice, Matt Cutts, utilizing URL shorteners has definitely no negative effect on SEO gave the URL shortener being referred to is working appropriately and regards the change as a 301 divert.

[Easton234]

As far as I know, shortened URL doesn't have any effect on SEO but it can be helpful for clickable. 

[amayajace]

According to Google's SEO voice, Matt Cutts, using URL shorteners has absolutely no negative impact on SEO provided the URL shortener in question is functioning properly and treats the conversion as a 301 redirect.

[Priyanka_V]

Shorten URL is useful for Twitter where limitations for Characters.