: It depends on the implementation of the URL shortener in question. If implemented in an SEO friendly way, then using a URL shortener will not hurt your SEO efforts compared to direct

@Megan663

It depends on the implementation of the URL shortener in question. If implemented in an SEO friendly way, then using a URL shortener will not hurt your SEO efforts compared to direct linking. For a URL shortener to be SEO friendly, it should:


Use 301 permanent redirects not

302 temporary redirects
framesets
meta refresh

Allow crawlers to access it

Allow crawling with robots.txt
Don't include x-robots headers that limit crawling or indexing
Show the same redirect to users and search robots

Be stable and robust -- consistent results with little downtime


Not all URL shorteners are SEO friendly. You should check the above items for the one that you are using.

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