Shortened URLs Passing Link Equity?
-
Hi everyone,
I was going through a competitor's backlinks, and I noticed they had a number of links from ow.ly and bit.ly that according to Open Site Explorer were passing link equity with PA in the 40 and DA in the 90s.
How does that happen? And, how can I duplicate that? I thought those services just shortened your URLs for Twitter feeds mostly, and Twitter no-followed everything.
Thanks for any assistance you can provide!
- Ruben
-
If they went to burner pages, then I would understand it a little better. However, when I click on the shorten link, it goes to his blog page on his actual site; not a microsite.
It's like the shorten link redirects to itself, but is passing equity. And, I can't figure out where the shortened link is actually posted it.
It's not in the source code of the actual blog page. Not sure how to find the origin of it.
- Rube
-
It could be either. I've seen bit.ly pop up in Ahrefs, which is how we found that ugly link scheme, but most of the time they list the site at the beginning of the chain.
-
Quick follow-up question: Let's say a perfectly reputable site like CNN wants to link to a piece of my content on my site, but rather than use the standard URL, they use a shortened link from bit.ly.
If I run that through a backlink checker tool, then will it say I have a link from CNN? From Bit.ly? Or Both?
Thanks,
Ruben
-
"How can we duplicate that?"
It really depends on how those shortened links are being used, and I'd say that mostly you don't want to go there. I've seen spammers use shortened links as a way to mask their paid links and link networks... they build a bunch of burner pages on freebie sites like Weebly, then stuff them full of links to the bit.ly URLs, which then 301 (and pass equity) to the main site. So if you took that bit.ly link and ran that through a backlink checker like Ahrefs, it would have a ton of links pointing at it. When the freebie services catch on and shut them down, they just build new ones, repeat the whole process. It was a big problem with Patch for awhile. It's the SEO equivalent of money laundering. The Payday update seemed to kill most of it, though.
To Eric's point though, a lot of social networks use link shorteners, so pop one of them into your backlink tool and see where they're leading back to.
-
Ruben,
Most URL shorteners use 301 permanent redirects, and some of those 301s aren't actually nofollow links. It depends on where the shortened URL appears. While Twitter links are typically nofollow links, there are sites where they aren't. For example, did you know that the full URL, when shared in LinkedIN in the description is not a nofollow link? It's shortened, but it's not nofollow.
From what we can tell, Google really does use social as a ranking signal, and if they can see that real traffic is going via social media to a URL, then it will rank well, even if it has a nofollow tag on it. What you're seeing is the power of social media to rank something and to link to something--which you should be doing if you want to rank as well as your competitors' sites.
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
-
Why are bit.ly and ow.ly links showing up as Inbound Links?
Hello! I noticed this question was asked a while back (around 2013 i think), but I still don't quite understand why I'm seeing these shortened URLs come up as Inbound Links? Can someone please explain? Thanks,
Link Building | | txwildcard
Carlos0 -
Inbound link is follow link but we put no follow link back - is it beneficial for rankings?
Dear Moz Community, We are operating in a niche market, where there are not so many content marketing options. What we are left with are link exchanging with relevant sites that are on the same topic but to not directly compete with us. Now we know that if we link back to site A and site a links back to us - for google this is not a very good link. But, some of the sites we are exchanging links with, do not know the term follow vs no follow links. My question - if your link is to site A is a no follow link but they give us a follow link - does it mean thats a better option than a follow vs follow. Thanks for help!
Link Building | | advertisingcloud0 -
How to link build?
Hello all. I've been having intense conversations with an experienced SEO, who has told me that the only way to get consistent links to your website, and to build you business through the web is through blogger outreach, and then paying the bloggers to put your appropriate content on their high Page Ranking website. To me, this may well be right. But it sounds dull as anything. Any thoughts? William
Link Building | | wseabrook0 -
How do websites get links here...
Does anyone know how people get into the "Top Links on This Topic" section of the Huffington Post? I can see that the "Around the Web" section is curated by someone, in this case "Jeff Muskus" but there is no indication how the Top Links on This Topic appear on a page. The only thing I noticed is that the original article appearing in HP is almost a year older than any of the referenced links. Image: http://epicscripts.com/HuffPo.jpg Original link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/23/abuse-victim-lawsuit-trea_n_549542.html
Link Building | | cgman0 -
How to beat This with Links?
Hello, So i am trying to beat this website gujratdetectives.com/ with a new website which has no backlinks as of now.
Link Building | | hardik_hrc
Now, I checked in open explorer that this site has many moderate level links. No high authority links but the problem is these links they all have title as the search keyword "detective in Gujarat" so maybe this is why this site rests on the top of this search keyword. So if building authority links into a different domain(Not detective related) with very high PR but WITHOUT title of relevancy. Anchor text would be the keyword but not the title of page. So the question is will those authority sites beat this gujratdetectives.com/ ???0 -
Link Building with Bloggers
I want to know when it comes to link building with relevant bloggers, is there a difference among the following in terms of SEO value? product review product giveaway guest blog Also, what would look natural o Google as how many of such links I can build per month? We are a consumer products, we've had lots of bloggers approach us wanting to do the above link building with us, if they fit the profile, high quality site, relevant to our business, does that mean I can do as many per month as we'd like to?
Link Building | | ypl0 -
Neighborhood links
Hi, If my company offers carpet cleaning services, what neighborhood links partner I need to find. Can anybody list down the neighborhood. Thanks.
Link Building | | younus0 -
The Value Of A Link
Hi There, Let's say I am able to get a link from a very well trust worthy blog that writes abot things related to my business. Now my question is how much value does another link with the same anchor text, from the same blog has compared to the first link, or compared to a new link from a slightly less powerfull blog? Or in another words, if I got 1 link from this great website should I invest my time to find another website where I can get a link from or should I invest it in getting another link from the website I already got a link from ( which might be easier)?
Link Building | | liors0