SEO
Do short links affect SEO?
How redirects work, what search engines do with them, and where short links fit into a healthy site.
By Lumara Links Team
4 min read
Short links come up in SEO discussions because they add a redirect between the click and the page. The short answer is that, used for sharing, they are not something to worry about. The longer answer is worth knowing, because there are a few places where they do not belong.
A short link is a redirect
When a browser or a search engine crawler requests a short link, the server replies with a redirect status and the destination address. Two statuses are common: 301, which says the move is permanent, and 302, which says it is temporary.
Lumara Links answers with a 302. That keeps browsers from caching the hop, so a link can later be disabled if it is reported, and each visit can be counted.
What search engines do with them
Search engines follow redirects and try to work out which address is the real home of the content. In general they index the destination page, not the short link. Google has said publicly that redirects pass ranking signals on to the destination, and that the choice between permanent and temporary mainly tells it which address to show in results.
In practice this means a short link shared on social media or in a newsletter does no harm to the page it points at. It also means a short link is not a ranking trick. It will not make a page rank better.
Where not to use them
- Internal links on your own site. Link directly to your pages so visitors and crawlers reach them in one step.
- Canonical tags, sitemaps and structured data. These should always contain the final address.
- Links you are asking another site to place. A direct link is cleaner and does not depend on a third service.
Good practice
- Shorten the final address, not one that redirects again. Chains slow visitors down.
- Keep the destination page healthy: fast, mobile friendly and matching what the link promised.
- Use descriptive aliases. They help people, and people are who you are writing for.
- Keep a record of your short links and where they point, so you can update campaigns when pages move.
Try it yourself
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