Does the value of Twitter/FB shares change depending on the url used?
-
I have a really hard time wrapping my head around the use rel canonical. I just watched WBF and it brought up a question that I had.
I had a situation where some of my pages could be accessed a couple of ways:
www.mydomain/question1.php?id=24-keyword-rich-url, or
www.mydomain/question1.php?id=24
I used rel canonical to tell the search engines that the keyword rich url was the one to index.
Now, we all know that shares on Twitter, FB, etc. can add value to my site's SEO. So, if someone happens to be on the non-keyword-rich url and they click a button to share, do I still get the same seo benefit?
Which brings me to a related question...if someone shares your content via a bitly or other shortened domain, is there any difference to the benefit you would get as compared to them sharing the full domain name?
-
Thanks, this makes sense to me.
So, if I get it right:
-Rel-canonical is mostly to tell search engines which page to index.
-A link shared on twitter or facebook or anywhere else for that matter that is a bitly will be like a 301 and will past most juice to my site.
But here's what I still don't get....If my main page is a descriptive url (as above), but someone links to it using the ugly url (i.e. www.mydomain/question.php?id=1), will the juice from this link still help my page in the serps? Would it be just as effective as if they had linked to the "correct" url?
-
And this is a classic example of how URL structure can be so important. Do you use wordpress? If so, go to your permalinks and try and change them to static, non parameter urls. Then you don't run into that problem. The issue is you cannot redirect one to the other, only rel-canonical it. This should still work the same way and from an SEO perspective you should be fine though. I would still rather have nice urls instead though.
Any link juice to one url that has a rel=canonical tag to another url will not pass link juice I believe. Only a 301 redirect passes link juice from one url to another. the rel=canonical tag has more to do with indexing and avoiding duplicate content than it does redirecting link juice around.
bit.ly links are just 301 redirects. All the link juice that goes to one bit.ly url passes to its destination url for the most part. Like other 301's it loses a bit when it redirects, so always better to get direct links when possible, but sites like twitter might make this impossible for long urls, so take what you can get.
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
-
Will using display:none; to hide images hurt SEO?
A popular trend among bloggers right now is to hide their long images for social media (Pinterest) using the code. This makes it so that when a reader clicks the Pin it browser button, the long image still shows up but is not displayed inside their post. Also note that the alt description for Pinterest marketers are always keyword rich, board line keyword stuffed. I've read this article from Google on hiding text and images https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66353?hl=en but not sure if this practice fits inside that scope. What are your thoughts? Will this hurt SEO?
Social Media | | klhill0 -
What is a good benchmark social share rate?
What is a good benchmark social share rate? Does a benchmark exist? For instance, on a Zillow home profile, what % of people share that home listing on social media? Or on a NY Times article, what % of people share that article on social media? Thanks.
Social Media | | NicheSocial1 -
Which wordpress pluggin would you advice for related posts and for social share
Which wordpress pluggin for my website would you advice for related posts and for social share that won't slow to much page speed? I had shareolic but with de new wordpress update MySql database went slow although page speed was not affected it produces a biggest consumption of the database making editing post very slow so i desativated and now i am looking for similar o all one one pluggins that uses related posts and related pages. And a social share pluggin also. Any advice? Wich one do you use on your website?
Social Media | | maestrosonrisas0 -
Connecting Twitter accounts?
Does anyone know if it is possible to connect 2 separate Twitter accounts? The marketing department in my company set up the official Twitter feed. However, one of the employees took it upon themselves to set up another one and built up a good following. Now a lot of people are getting confused to which one is the official one. It would be great it we could merge the two, but I've been looking all morning and can't seem to find a way. Any help?
Social Media | | AAttias0 -
I have a client involved in a FB like for a like scheme. This sounds unethical to me and likely against FB rules. Anyone know about this?
So they recently made me an administrator so I can add links to articles and other optimization information but they appear to be paying another agency to engage in like for a like campaign. I am very uncomfortable with it. I started noticing these weird messages from other folks on FB saying things like "I liked you page now check out mine and like it back." What are your thoughts?
Social Media | | belocally0 -
Facebook Shares/Likes: Does the users location matter for location specific keywords?
Hi, Basically if I was going after a location specific keyword, so lets say 'dry cleaners london' would Facebook likes/shares from users' who's location settings in Facebook are set to London work better then say someone in a different country or does it hold the same weight social signals wise?
Social Media | | activitysuper0 -
How do I use Google+ as a page?
A couple of weeks ago I created a Google+ page for my website and you can see the page here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/101532714567190382783/posts?hl=en I was logged in to my account when I did so. I'm now ready to start posting on my page and I cannot for the life of me figure out how. I've tried everything I can find to update that page as the page, but I cannot use Google+ as the page. I have no idea how to post anything. Please help!
Social Media | | DanDeceuster0