4 Url Shorteners You Should Never Use
Let’s face it, whether you love them or hate them, url shorteners are here to stay. However, all url shorteners are not created equal. The shortening service you choose to use can have a big impact on your site’s link building and rankings.
The problem with some of the services out there is that they don’t provide a clean 301 redirect to your content. 301 redirects tell search engines to permanently redirect to your content. Instead they provide a 302 redirect which tells search engines that this a temporary situation which causes a lot of issues with most search engines.
Even if you just use short urls on twitter which nofollows the links you post anyway, you still need to pick a url shortener that 301 redirects because once you post a link on twitter it can end up anywhere.
If your shortened url gets republished all over the web (and isn’t that the point) wouldn’t it be nice to get the credit?
Bellow are 4 sites you should never use because they do not provide a clean 301 redirect:
- twurl.nl – 303 redirect
- hex.io – 302 redirect
- eweri.com – 302 redirect
- fon.gs – 302 redirect
If you look around you will surely find more examples. (Please post any examples you find in the comment section) Also watch out for services that use a bar or frames to display ads etc. Besides being tacky they usually are not providing a clean redirect.
Good Examples: Each of these services provides a clean 301 redirect
- tinyurl.com
- bit.ly
- ff.im
- is.gd
In summary, make certain when you do use a url shortening service that you only use one that 301 redirects. When in doubt simply enter a shortened url in a header checker like http://www.seoconsultants.com/tools/headers.asp
Follow this simple advice and when your Twitter post hits the big time your content actually get the credit it deserves.
I run such a service, http://URLSim.com that also correctly uses a 301 redirect.
Thanks for the info about thew SEM URL shortening sites. I would have never known about this technique or these bad servces.
I use HootSuite Owly URL shortener for Twitter because it keeps track of the clickthru’s and provides a lot of other great Twitter tools.
Does HootSuite do it ‘right’?
http://www.hootsuite.com
Tom
Hey Tom,
Yeah it looks like http://ow.ly urls from HootSuite are using 301 redirects. So you should be good to go.
Hey there! Interesting blog! I’m working with my friend in a small internet marketing business as a junior SEO analyst.
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