Shortening URLs for SEO: How Bit.ly Can Help With Your SEO Strategy

Content consumers today are immersed in a sea of information from a myriad of different websites and social media channels. SEO Sydney has seen that it is becoming increasingly hard to capture and retain their attention and organisations must update their marketing tactics for this reason.

Social media is a massively expanding industry that has fuelled the growth of the URL shortening industry as there is an increased phenomenon of sharing links across multiple media and in numerous different forms. In addition, Instagram and Twitter are major players in this trend of organisations using brand-specific or shortened links like goo.gl, youtu.be and in particular bit.ly. This allows them to capture the attention of their audience and increase traffic to their content.

How Bit.ly Works for SEO

Bit.ly is a URL shortening tool where users convert long URL addresses to short ones. Bit.ly uses the 301 redirect system. This sends both users and search engines to a different URL from the original one. Serving a 301 (HTTP status code) redirect indicates to both browsers and search engine bots that the page has moved permanently.

Search engines interpret this as a change of location for the page and believe that an updated version of the content can be found in that new URL. The engines will carry any link weighting from the original page to the new URL.

However, it is crucial to observe if these URL shortening systems are not detrimental to your SEO. The more a company's content is shared, the better and so it comes to question if a shortened URL is recognised by search engine algorithms. Additionally, the majority of popular URL tools such as bit.ly have good uptime and pass PageRank.

Link Equity and 301 Redirects

The use of 301 redirects is driven by various reasons, including upgrading from HTTP to HTTPS to enhance website security, or redirecting users to related pages when product pages are removed.

With this being said, 301 redirects usually pass most link equity – Google Webmasters note that 90-100% of link equity is transferred to the final destination. Despite the fact that multiple redirects could still result in minor losses of link power, such losses are generally not significant enough to impact SEO unless the redirect chain is excessively long.

Benefits of URL Shortening

• Link encryption: Every link is encrypted with HTTPS which guards against eavesdropping or third-party tampering.
• Media convergence: Users are exposed to the desired link on one social media platform which links them to another sharing platform. Bit.ly connects multiple social channels to streamline the sharing process.
• Clicks: Shortened URLs attract more website visitors due to their ease of search. Shortening your links is the way to go if you want your audience to click on them and trust them more.
• Aesthetics and UX: Shortened URLs improve aesthetics and user experience. Furthermore, shorter URLs also work well on print campaigns.
• Analytics: In a similar way to Google Analytics, Bit.ly allows you to track the sharing activities of your post/tweet over a specific period of time.