Shortening URLs could affect SEO
2nd March 2010 by Tanisha Sakhawat
Those who shorten internet addresses when posting on Twitter should think carefully if they want to market something, as it could be detrimental to their search engine optimisation which rank in big search engines, according to an industry figure from the Brainchild Group. Aaron Schoenberger said there has been a proliferation in the number of firms offering URL shortening services.
Reducing the length of links, however, does have its benefits as they are shorter and can fit into the limited character status bar. That fact that only 140 characters can be posted in a Twitter post- or Tweet, has raised some problems for websites that utilise URL’s on the long side. If linking to a website, and the URL takes up 100 of the 140 characters allowed in a Tweet, the amount of room for text is significantly decreased. On the flip side, if a URL has only 10 characters, there are 130 characters left for Tweet updates.
Though the effect of shortening URL’s can be negative as it is a crucial part of SEO to businesses.
Mr Schoenberger said: ”The text in the backlinks built to that particular URL are directly related to its ranking in search engines. If backlinks are being built to a shortened URL and not the real URL, the impact of your Twitter efforts is significantly diminished.”
The marketing director of memorybits.co.uk, Sam Tilson has recently emphasised the importance of effective search engine optimisation to businesses who want to market their brand. He stated that search is the primary way many consumers find information on the internet, which makes a high ranking on search engine results pages all the more important.
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