If you are blogging for a while now, you should have heard about 301 redirect. If you have not heard about it, I am surprised! But hearing doesn’t necessarily mean knowing 
I am sure there are still lots of bloggers who don’t know what a 301 redirect is. Well that is not a shame and for those here is a short definition
The 301 status code means that a page has permanently moved to a new location.
A 301 redirect is mainly used when
1. you have changed your blog or website to a new domain, in which case you have to permanently move the links from the old domain to a new domain.
2. you need to canonicalize your urls - meaning, redirecting the no-www version to the www version of your website or vice versa.
3. for any kind of redirect in general, like redirecting a 404 page to your home page or archive page and so on.
A 301 redirect is called as a proper redirect in the sense that when the search engine bots encounter a 301 redirect, they are well informed that the files are moved to a new location and the bots follow such a redirect without any confusion.
Well, let’s talk about URL shorteners now. Why? Because we do a redirect when we use a url shorterner.
We use a lot of url shorterner services throughout the day, as we tweet and share at different social media. We also use url shorteners for cloaking affiliate links too!
Fine, now are we passing the page rank when we are using url shorteners?
The answer is a Yes and a No.
Well according to Matt, most well behaved url shorteners like bit.ly, google, twitter and youtube shorteners (Matt mentions only bit.ly and google shorteners, but I am sure these are standard shorteners) do pass page rank.
That is a good new. So when you use a standard url shortener you don’t have to worry about passing page rank because they all use proper 301 redirects.
The answer for the question is No in 2 cases:
1. When you are using non-standard and strange url shorteners, which may or may not be using a 301 redirect, there is no guarantee that you will pass page rank.
2. The social media web pages where the links are no-follow, do not pass pagerank even if you are using a standard url shortener with a proper 301. That is, a 301 redirect cannot make a no-follow link to be do-follow.
Here is what Matt says about url shorteners passing page rank.
Let me know what you think!
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Hi Jane
Short but useful information about URL Shorterners
It makes me more comfortable using these services without worring about SEO issue
Regards,
Tho Huynh
Hi Jane
Very useful information. Always to hear it from Google themself. Have never really thought about URL shorteners is using 301 redirect, but when you think about it, it is pretty obvious.
Well Jane, there is nothing to shame in learning process, because there are many people who don’t need to do this kind of activity where as they are technical and they don’t know about it.
well Blogging and all this stuff is about learning.
Hi Jane,
thanks for sharing this. It’s good to know that url-shorteners like bit.ly behave well in the eyes of Google
so we don’t have to worry about that. I always love Matt’s short videos.
Take care
Oliver
Hey Oliver,
I love those videos too. They are short, to the point and easily understandable.
Cheers,
Jane.
Interesting Jane, you really do learn something new everyday, huh. I had no idea about the shorteners, l but I rarely if ever use them…I know I don’t usually like to click them.
I will have a post published regarding what I think is the best shortener…some may be surprised. ;_)
Dennis,
Awaiting your post on shorteners
But I am surprised that you rarely use shorteners. Most of sharing is with shorteners isn’t?
I agree that I too hesitate to click a shortened link, unless it is from a trusted shortener, like bit.lt, google, t.co, etc.
Cheers,
Jane.
The shortener itself is not what most people distrust Jane, the fact that you can’t see where it’s going is where the distrust comes in.
I never use shorteners unless it is an absolute necessity.
Jane,
Thank you for sharing this video. It’s my first time seeing this one. Also, good to know that the services I’m currently using are “approve” stamped by the big G.
See you again soon!
Jon
Hey Jane,
Honestly though it’s a short post, still a little cloudy to me
But I know I’d learn, might just take a while.
Thanks for sharing, Jane.
Tosin
Hi Tosin,
Shoot me any questions you have, I’ll be glad to answer them
Jane.
Ja ne, aloha. While i have long used bit.ly, it is nice to know that it carries the “official” seal of approval. Thx so much for sharing this video from Matt which was clear and concise.
What I so appreciate about your posts, Jane, is the organized manner in which you lay out the info. They are always so easy to follow. This one also is going into my resources file to be able to share with others at a future date.
Best wishes for a terrific week. Aloha. Janet
Hi Jane
I’ve used 301 redirects for some time now but only recently heard of URL shorteners.
Great little video from Matt cutts - anchor text and pagerank passed to the final destination via URL shorteners because they use a 301 redirect.
My first visit and I like your site Jane.
Hope to be back.
This is so interesting, Jane! I hadn’t even thought about this! I wonder if the Hootsuite shortener (ow.ly) counts as a decent URL shortener. I use Hootsuite for almost all of my tweets!
Great resource, Jane! =) Thanks for sharing Matt’s video too. =)
Hootsuite is nice but Bit.ly is the most reputated in URL shorteners. So, better to use it
Hey Jane,
Thanks for sharing this useful information. Great to know that url-shorteners like bit.ly are well received by Google
All the best,
Mavis
Hi Jane,
This is very very helpful! Now, we are assured that url shorteners do not conflict with Google at all (they said it themselves!)
It’s the first time I watch Matt’s video, so thank you for introducing me to this youtube resource. And thank you Jane, for putting this together.
- Rowena
Hi Jane,
Never even thought about this question so was good to hear the answer. I have always used bit.ly. Funny how certain things just stick and considering this post I am pleased too.
Thanks Jane.
~Marcus
Hi Jane,
Although I knew about redirecting, he information provided in your post was interesting, especially the point concerning ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to passing a page rank. I thought that it was always ‘yes’ - not I see that it’s not always the case.
Hi Jane,
Great info on 301 redirects and URL shorteners. I had never really thought about this subject. I will have to read into it more.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention and have a great day!
Hi Jane,
I have heard of 301 redirect but didn’t really know what it is all about until yesterday. As you know, I am new to blogging so I enjoy all these posts that shed more light into blogging issues. I am not a technical person and you have written this post in a way that it is easy to understand.
I probably dont’t need it now but it’s good to know these things ahead of time!
301 redirect is mean 4ever and it can passed PR as well. But I don’t think the shortens url can be too. Just thing, haven’t time to test it !
I’m still new to most things so this post about URL shorteners was rather informative and helpful. I have thought that PR can’t be passed - now I see that it can.
iPad Story says
Now I’m understand. Thanks for explain to us about 301 redirection
This is good information, I was wondering about this for a while, but never bothered looking into it. Good to stumble upon this Jane, thanks!
Hi Jane,
I came to know about 301 redirect some time ago and there’s no problem to use services like bit.ly. I’m more concerned about URL cloaking through PrettyLinkPro or NinjaAffiliate. Is it good to use cloaking from GOOGLE LAW and ranking point of view?
Jane,
Great info on the URL shorteners. I had always “assumed” they did pass the PR, but I was a little bit unsure. I likely wouldn’t have stopped using them even if they didn’t, but it feels a lot better know that I know they do.
Thanks!
I can’t really understand how these url shortener manage to pass page rank. I didn’t even think it might be possible, but seems that Matt prove me wrong, I’ll have to rethink my strategies.
Thanks a lot for the info, like you said it, just because I’ve heard about doesnt mean you know about it. Now I do though. Thanks
Ellen says
I was always hesitating to use URL Shortenor. I was thinking that these can not transfer link juice. This post is much usefull for me and has more worth near me, because words are came out from Matt Cuts mouth.
Thanks for sharing such a nice information.
Dimitri says
thanx for the write up! However I have noticed something disturbing with some of the keyword rank checkers out there. for some reason, they flag all my redirected domains with a nofollow. I mean is that even possible to make a no follow 301 redirect? is this keyword rankchecker website reporting false information about the flag?
Very good article, you gave us useful information about URL Shorterners. Thanks.
I really hope that It does pass on the page rank as I have recently change my Domain Name as I moved to a custom domain from a blogger domain which had a PR4.
Does this mean if I move my domain from pynk-nymphette.com to pynknymphette.com I will lose all my Page Rank? There is absolutely no way to completely pass on your Page Rank any more? Thanks for the great article.
I dint know that page rank has something to do with this. Thanks for letting me knw!