Is there anyway for redirected links to still provide SEO value?
-
I help a site that helps spread word by getting links on peoples social media pages. These links are truncated ie website.com/XyUE for the purposes of tracking clicks, referrals and so forth. I have heard that when a link is in a redirect form like that it loses close to all, if not completely all of its link value. The links themselves are technically 301's. Do these still maintain value?
For example, the stopped.at links on this person's twitter. http://twitter.com/#!/Melewis18
Is there any way to make links of this type maintain SEO value? Is there a workaround to truncating for tracking purposes?
-
Hi Spencer - I think there's some awkward phrasing combined with the challenge of parsing the true meaning/intent of your question on this one. I'll do my best to answer what I think you're asking.
A shortened link, by default, does not lose its ability to pass link juice, PageRank, trust metrics, anchor text signals or anything else an engine might associate with a link. If it did, all these years, our TinyURL links (which existed long before any social stuff) and all those 301 redirects (which are essentially how shortened URLs function) would have failed. Clearly, they didn't, nor do bit.ly, j.mp, t.co, etc. type links today.
If you're asking if, by placing a shortened URL on a normal webpage and linking to it, the target of the 301 redirect loses out compared to a direct link, the answer is no. If you're asking whether nofollowed links in Twitter tweets or profiles that contain shortened URLs (or that exist elsewhere in the social web and may not be followed or even crawlable by engines) lose value, the answer is "it depends," but also "probably."
All that said, at one point in time, a Google representative did note that 301 redirects and rel=canonical tags do lose a small amount of the PageRank they pass to another page compared to a non-redirect/canonical. We're of the strong opinion this is between 1-10% of the PageRank value, though we also suspect that other link signals, many of which are often more important than PageRank nowadays, are unaffected. This is my opinion only, and we can't know for sure whether Google still puts this slight dampening on redirects/canonicals.
Hope that helps!
-
Exactly Joe, although I'm focusing on the SEO value derived from social media. As was stated above social media sites have no-follows that don't pass link juice, but still affect rankings. I am basically trying to ascertain if anyone on here knows "if a link is in a redirected truncated form, does it lose most or all of it's link value, including ANY value a link can have?" with an emphasis on the social media pass through value.
Does it still count as a like or a share when the link is truncated and redirected?
-
Do you have any evidence to back up this claim? Any reasoning behind assuming a 301 passes link juice, but it wont pass through any social media ranking signals?
-
Either you guys don't understand Spenser or I'm pretty confused. It's obvious that no follow links don't pass link juice, and if Andres is correct, do follow passes 90-99%. BUT... I have links on pages that are no follow and are from high DA sites, and "link value" to me isn't just link juice, it's any value of having the link. I am led to believe from reading that these links add depth or breath (whatever) to my linking structure. Spenser is asking specifically if a link is in a redirected truncated form, does it lose most or all of it's link value, including ANY value a link can have? Not to mention the effects of truncating!
-
I Agree with Aaron, these links are nofollow, just the regular follow site-to-site redirect maintain most of the link value.
But within a social media environment, these are some signals that carry value for SEO:
Q.Does anyone know if a 301 redirect link on a social media page still sends ranking signals?
R/ 301 from a Nofollow? Social media or not, the answer is no.
-
I am aware that social media has its own signal as I stated above.
Let me try to refine the question once more.
Does anyone know if a 301 redirect link on a social media page still sends ranking signals?
-
These links will be nofollowed so will carry no link juice. Twitter links have recently been throught to carry the largest of all social signals however, so although they do not carry juice, they can send a signal to ranking factors for a short period of time.
-
Thanks. I wonder how this works in a social media context though? Since twitter and facebook don't count for direct link juice, how would a 301 link affect the social media power?
Also does anyone have any idea what the anchor text counts as in that scenario? probably just stopped.at/SAuadh
-
Hi Spencer, this will make you feel better:
"A 301 Redirect is a permanent redirect which passes between 90-99% of link juice (ranking power) to the redirected page."
Here is the source: http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/redirection
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
-
How to provide good quality content if competition is stealing
Hi everyone, I have a customer that is very successful in a worlds niche market in the aviation industry. Following Rand Fishkin and Wil Reynolds I tell them to provide the best content they have for their customers and want them to blog. Now the issue is that their competition is playing unfair and already stole texts from them to present those at aviation fairs. What do you think? How can one follow Rands and Wils suggestions without losing in the end? Cheers Marc
Social Media | | RWW1 -
Adding links to FB, Googleplus, pininterest, Twitter
HI everyday we are posting new product detail url to FB, Googleplus, pininterest, Twitter. 1. Will this have any value at all in SEO? and also we get question related to the products, we are thinking to post on FB/Google plus with urls and answer.. 2. wht do you think? Pls suggest.. thanks We have blogs in http://domainname.blogspot.in/ and domainname.wordpress.com
Social Media | | Rahim119
we are also pasting the links and some write is happening there as well..0 -
Are NoFollow Links a Waste of time?
I share links to my blog on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and Instagram. However, my links on social media sites are NoFollow Links. Do No Follow links help my Search Ranking or is it a waste of time to share my content on Social Media? Ytellsocial
Social Media | | Ytellsocial0 -
Twitter and SEO
Hey Moz folks, I would like your input on this matter: Twitter recently made a new agreement with Google regarding the SEO & their Tweets. At the moment I have 12 different websites across 12 different markets and I`d like to know how could I use Twitter for all markets, so I can get the most out of the new deal between Twitter and Google SEO wise. If I create 12 different accounts for all my 12 websites and create tweets for all of them, it would really be a very time consuming process, but on the other hand if I only use 1 account how can I target multiple websites ? Let me know what do you think. Thanks, Andrei
Social Media | | kiraftw0 -
Is Link Earning the same as Blogger Outreach?
Hello all - is there a difference between link earning (from Rand's WBF post) and blogger outreach? Little confused 🙂
Social Media | | Seabrook0 -
Links to Social Media Sites
I am in the process of updating my website where all the URLs of my individual blog pages are changing. I have, in the past, done a lot of link sharing on Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter of my individual blog posts, but now on the new site my links will be different. Therefore, when I launch the new site anyone clicking on my previous tweets or facebook shares will get a broken link. Is there a tool I can use that identifies all the links on social media sites? Opensite Explorer doesn't show these - unless I am missing something? Any tips on how to overcome this would be very useful. thanks
Social Media | | goodge0 -
Twitter and Link Juice
Sorry if I am late to the party with this, but I thought Twitter stopped giving sites link juice? I have been running some sites through Open Site Explorer and there main links are coming from Twitter. I have other sites who are on Twitter and nothing comes up. Why is that? Thanks!
Social Media | | ClickIt0 -
Is Video Marketing Effective Link Building Strategy?
Is video marketing an effective link building strategy-has anyone had any luck with it? By video marketing I mean using a video distribution service like TubeMogul to atuo distribute videos to many different video sites, and including a link to my website in the Video Title section.
Social Media | | MyNet0