Another Google breakthrough was recently launched. Called goo.gl, this new brainchild of Google is used in shortening website’s URL. This idea was first introduced in December last year. Now in its fruition, this new website will turn long URLs into short URLs which is a popular way of sharing links on social media sites such as Twitter.
The question then lies on how this new URL shortener affects SEO and search.
According to Matt Cutts from Google, the new website could work positively for the low-ranking websites. The fact that the shortener uses a 301 (permanently moved) in redirecting to the destination URL, sharing a link on social networks and the click-throughs that resulted from this may benefit the websites.
The new website could also work into the ranking algorithm of Google. This may possibly become a factor in real-time search results, or even in regular search results, once it is proven effective. From the data about what links are mostly shared and clicked, Google then will be able to use this as a factor for ranking.
The posts on various social sites could also be used by Google in ranking. Whereas before, anchor text was the method, Google can now study the content of the posts, determine the site where it was sent, and evaluate the volume of traffic sent for the said site in a period of time across several mentions and use these data for the ranking algorithm.
PageRank used links as Google’s social graph. However, PageRank as a method in “counting votes” has gradually diminished with the introduction of social media and more advanced and complex web sites. Now, people can simply vote by sharing links in whichever social network that they are using or simply send it via e-mail.
As you sign into your Google account, you will have access to public, real-time analytic data. This will give you a historical list of URLs you’ve shortened along with some basic information like traffic over time, visitor profiles, and referrers. This will also give Google some important biographic data.
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