

Ask HN: Does Google decode bit.ly URLs? - ry0ohki

Is it a huge SEO mistake to use shortened URLs places?  I'm hoping Google is decoding the big name ones these days like bit.ly, t.co etc... But I can't find any definitive proof of this.  Does anyone know for sure?
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byoung2
They usually use 301 redirects which all search engines follow to the
destination site, passing along pagerank, link juice, etc. There is no harm in
using a shortened link from the search engine's perspective, but there is a
hit to branding.

<http://bit.ly/pages/help>:

 _bit.ly works by issuing a "301 redirect": a technique for making a webpage
available under many URLs. When you shorten a link with bit.ly, you are
redirecting a click from bit.ly to the destination URL. A 301 redirect is the
most efficient and search engine-friendly method for webpage redirection, and
is what bit.ly uses. Because bit.ly doesn’t re-use or modify links, we
consider our redirects to be permanent._

