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Google have launched "Google url shortener". Will this affect on SEO?

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Short answer for : a well‑behaved URL shortener by itself doesn’t harm SEO. Google’s short links have historically used an HTTP 301 (permanent) redirect, and Google engineers (Matt Cutts) have said that 301 shorteners pass PageRank and anchor‑text signals through to the destination — a simple HEAD request to a goo.gl URL also returns a 301. (searchenginejournal.com)

Two practical caveats you won’t see in the thread yet: many social platforms (Twitter, some feeds) add rel="nofollow", so links placed on those pages won’t pass PageRank regardless; redirect chains or temporary (302/JS) redirects can reduce value and slow users; and third‑party shorteners carry long‑term dependency risk if the provider changes policy. For action: audit your top short links, prioritize replacing any goo.gl links that drive traffic or backlinks with either the direct URL or a branded short domain you control, avoid chaining shorteners, and verify redirects with a HEAD test and by checking social previews. (searchenginejournal.com)

A quick lifecycle note that ties back to and : Google moved goo.gl into legacy mode in 2018 (recommended Firebase Dynamic Links as the successor) and shut down the console/APIs in 2019; more recently Google began flagging inactive goo.gl URLs with a deactivation warning and then clarified it will preserve actively used links — any goo.gl link that shows the message “This link will no longer work in the near future” should be migrated now. If you’ve relied on goo.gl for important links, export/record those targets and replace them with permanent, server‑side 301 redirects you control. (developers.googleblog.com)

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Member Avatar for ursimrankhanna

Hi,

If there is profit there lose too.

Member Avatar for ezestseo

Hi "ursimrankhanna",

so is it helpful or not?

Member Avatar for fanatic123

Really have they? IF google has released it, I am sure, Google took care of the SEO problems, I don't think it should have much of an effect.

Member Avatar for DavidB

It is supposed to use a permanent 301 redirect to forward users to the appropriate page (i.e. - pass on the full benefits of PR).

However, I am still not too keen on it until they allow customization of the short URLs. Right now, the shortened URLs are random letters and numbers, which are hard to memorize. A more intuitive URL, like schoolpage or librarypage, would make the service a LOT better. Existing shorteners, like snipurl and bitly do this.

Member Avatar for mintdesignnz

hmmm.. does anyone have an idea on its effect on url scoring?

Member Avatar for sheva249

No, I don't think that it has importance in SEO point of view. Rather its a Google product but I don't think that it has any kinda importance in SERPs.

Member Avatar for shaniadavid

i haven't heard this before.. Thanks for the info.. Will check out this..

Member Avatar for dougadam

From googles blog

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/making-urls-shorter-for-google-toolbar.html

Making URLs shorter for Google Toolbar and FeedBurner
12/14/2009 12:31:00 PM
This morning, we launched updated versions of the Google Toolbar and FeedBurner that offer a new URL shortening service from Google called the Google URL Shortener. We mentioned our URL shortener as a feature in both announcements, so we wanted to say a little more about how this product works and why we're offering it.

People share a lot of links online. This is particularly true as microblogging services such as Twitter have grown in popularity. If you're not familiar with them, URL shorteners basically squeeze a long URL into fewer characters to make it easier to share with others. With character limits in tweets, status updates and other modes of short form publishing, a shorter URL leaves more room to say what's on your mind — and that's why people use them.

First, we think people who use the Google Toolbar and FeedBurner will benefit from a shortener that is easily accessible — making it faster and easier to share, post and email links. Second, we've built this on Google's global infrastructure to offer the following benefits:
Stability: Google's scalable, multi-datacenter infrastructure provides great uptime and a reliable service to our users.
Security: As we do with web search, shortened URLs are automatically checked to detect sites that may be malicious and warn users when the short URL resolves to such sites.
Speed: At Google we like fast products and we've worked hard to ensure this service is quick. We'll continue to iterate and improve the speed of Google Url Shortener.
Google URL shortener is not a stand-alone service; you can't use it to shorten links directly. Currently, Google URL Shortener is only available from the Google Toolbar and FeedBurner. If the service proves useful, we may eventually make it available for a wider audience in the future.

We're excited about enabling this functionality — try it for Toolbar and FeedBurner!

Posted by Muthu Muthusrinivasan, Ben D'Angelo and Devin Mullins, Software Engineers

Member Avatar for niceboy

I don't think this is going to be useful for any SEO purpose.

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