Since communicating on social media went 140-character, there has been a proliferation of url shorteners to help squeeze web addresses into tight status updates and tweets. But can shortened urls break the link chain and ruin some hard-earned links?
If the URL shortening service goes bust, and some have, then the link is broken. When their server is down, those links are broken. Look for url shortening services which are reliable. The ideal choice would be Google’s url shortener, but Goo.gl is currently restricted for the use with Google products.
If a short URL is contained in a followed link, it will pass pagerank. But, if the shortening involves a 301 redirect, most search engines will reduce the authority of the link.
So is there any benefit to link building on Twitter when the links are no-followed? Well while you might have to wait days for a static link or a blog post about your content or activity, Twitter links can spring up immediately, and are increasingly visible in Google results pages:
Note that the BBC gain a link to their Twitter page, the individual Tweet and the shortened URL in the real-time search results
Search Engine Land have produced a great graph of URL shorteners and their different properties which can work as a good guide for which one is best for you to use.
Comments
Google URL Shortener is https://goo.gl/ and not goog.le
Although Google URL Shortener is restricted to their products, there are plugins which you can use https://goo.gl/PiyX (Chrome Extension).
Twitter is also in the verge of launching its own URL Shortener https://goo.gl/xJX7
Cheers
Thanks Vinay
Matt Cutts admits that 301 redirects (such as shortened links) reduce PageRank:
https://www.stonetemple.com/articles/interview-matt-cutts-012510.shtml
A good reason not to use URL shorteners on Libyan domains:
https://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/libya_shuts_down_vbly_bitly_owly_next.php