Permanent URLs for Twitter?
-
Hi everyone -
The site I am working on is going to start giving users the option to tweet that they completed an action. It reads, for example, "I just took the first step to ( ) with (site): (shortened link) via (Twitter name)"
Here's my question:
Should I worry about the fact that the shortened URL (we're possibly going to use Twitter's shortener T.Co, but I'm not dedicated to it) changes each time? Should we instead have a permanent short URL for the homepage (where we are going to direct people who click the link in the tweet)?
Thanks!
-
Rand talks about URL shorteners and their effect on link juice etc here: http://www.seomoz.org/q/is-there-anyway-for-redirected-links-to-still-provide-seo-value - Very good info (as you would expect from the bearded one...)
-
Roger, I do not think it is necessary, but from a branding perspective, to stand out from the crowd of normal bit.ly users (I'm one of them, btw), it could be a good idea. It may be for my site.
I'd say it depends on the site and the niche.
-
Is your own shortner really necessary? I can't imagine it is.
-
bit.ly pro would work. Personally I use yourls.org
-
Thanks. This is great info.
-
The actual URL takes up too much space. Also, you rarely see people using full URLs in tweets. From a "we know what we're doing here" perspective, the full URL might not be a great idea. Do you disagree?
Matt Cutts said (in the video linked to above) that any decent shortener will 301 redirect the shortened URL and thus pass link juice. I guess I am more concerned about it from a branding/tracking perspective now.
-
This sounds like a good idea. What service do you recommend for creating a custom short URL? Would bit.ly PRO work fine for this?
-
Exactly. It's why I created the http://seoaud.it shortener for my own needs.
-
Can use use the actual URL? That would get you a direct link.
Or, your idea of a permanent short URL that is 301 redirected on your main site would be a good alternative.
Links from tweets are sometimes used elsewhere and getting that linkjuice would be nice.
Also, if you use the actual URL or have complete control over the shortened URL you don't have to worry about it being changed on you.
-
-
I would not be worried about the different URLs. Almost all url shorteners 301 to the destination URL and pass link juice. Even though the shortened URLs are different, they would all be passing the juice to the same spot.
-
It's ultimately irrelevant from an SEO perspective - so it comes down to click tracking. If you have different actions, you'd want a unique shortened URL for each action.
I'd also suggest considering setting up your own URL shortener, rather than relying on 3rd party. As great as Bit.ly is, and as much as Twitter offers their own, the only way to ensure a short URL that's generated is always going to be around is to have your own.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Twitter Analytics: Follower Count & Reporting Inconsistencies
Our number of followers on Twitter has suddenly dropped (yet not dropped) in a really weird way. Twitter Analytics shows follower counts in two places: Monthly increases in followers, and then also in the Audience Insights tab, where you can see three months of follower counts mapped in a chart. Month-to-month, the total number of followers continues to rise. What’s inconsistent, however, is the total number of aggregate followers shown in the cart. Twitter just dropped our to total count of followers by about 600. But it’s not like we just suddenly lost 600 followers last month (in fact we gained far more than that), but rather that Twitter seems to have adjusted the aggregate numbers across the board retroactively for all months. So while month-to-month continues to show gains, overall, we still went down. The only way we would have even noticed this, by the way, is because we have a record of the OLD total follower count that Twitter had previously displayed as recently as last month. So confusing. We’re trying to figure out what happened, and the only thing that seems to make sense is that Twitter may have done a huge spam account purge, and instead of making it look like we suddenly lost a lot of followers, they just updated the aggregate total # of followers across all time……? [For the record, we do not buy followers, but we don’t always do the best job at blocking spam followers when the do follow us either.] Any advice would be appreciated, thanks. 🙂
Social Media | | mirabile0 -
How can I most effectively use Twitter to increase traffic and promote sales for our fine art business?
My wife and I are struggling to promote her sales of Fine art wildlife art and nature paintings; both originals and fine art prints.We have had a website for over 10 years; with virtually no traffic, and only an occasional sale (averaging about one per year). How can we most effectively use the Twitter platform to generate leads and sales?
Social Media | | nomadjim0 -
Twitter interactions
We would love for some feedback as we're facing an internal dilemma on how to utilize twitter for our business. We are launcing a new travel site that will connect travellers based on their activities and also serve as a booking platform. One part of our marketing team suggests we make two seperate twitter accounts; one 'formal' that follows a structured guideline in posting relevant material and one for the Social Media manager to reply to people as site official. The other part suggests we reply and interact using the 'formal' account; no second twitter account needed for interacting. What would you suggest?
Social Media | | Ilias__G0 -
Who are my Twitter followers?
I'd like to know how many of my twitter followers are other businesses and how many are individual customers. Is there a tool for this?
Social Media | | ShearingsGroup0 -
Content Marketing and Twitter
Hello, I'd like to improve how I use twitter for pushing a piece of content. Here's what I am planning to do currently: First, we created a useful piece of content for a niche where we'll be appealing to the humanitarian side of thing. Nothing like this piece of content is on the web. The subject is not mouthwateringly attractive to other websites, but it is good, very useful, authoritative and uses the information we have in our niche. For Twitter, we plan to pick a website carefully that could use our content and 1. of course follow that site on twitter 2. Retweet 2 or 3 relevant good tweets the site has put out. If the person I want to contact has a twitter account, retweet some of his too. 3. Tweet a general tweet about a good article or blog post the site has with a link to the site and the article. 4. Tweet at a specific person in the site's company (or to the general twitter account if there isn't anyone specific) asking if they need help with content if it is well written and useful, then later tweeting introducing our article. Email will also be used. I'm really new to using twitter for content marketing, any help is appreciated. Facebook liking/sharing as well as blog comment posting along with adding to g plus circles will also be used. Thanks.
Social Media | | BobGW1 -
Do twitter profile links in bio pass juice?
Links that are added in the "Website" field in a twitter profile are nofollow. However, links added to the "Bio" section are dofollow. This has to mean these links are passing juice correct?
Social Media | | eli.boda0 -
Should I adopt Google Plus Custom URLs?
Google Plus have just released Custom URLs, see here So instead of the messy https://plus.google.com/b/012345679 you can have http://www.google.com/+{yourbrandname}. This would be much better for memorizing. But any opinions on added or future perceived SEO benefit?
Social Media | | RobertChapman0 -
What variables could be used to calculate the value of a Twitter follower?
Hi Mozzers, What variables could be used to calculate the value of a Twitter follower? I m thinking something of Click through rate Conversion rate Retweets Number of followers Something else?
Social Media | | ThomasHgenhaven0