This tip is mainly for those of you whom use Twitter and other social networking websites.
I won’t bore you with a detailed explanation, but one of the ways that Google (et al.) ranks pages is based upon what websites link to it. Inbound links are good. See Google Webmaster Tools.
When using Twitter, it is a popular practice to use an URL shortener like tinyurl.com or is.gd to make hyperlinks shorter (to stay within the 140 character message limit). Example:
The problem is that every time you use a URL shortener to link to your own website…that link (on twitter.com which is visible to Google) gives “Google Juice” credit to the URL shortener (e.g., is.gd) and not to YOUR WEBSITE. Bad move.
I mentioned this to Matt Buchanan recently and he suggested I look at Get-Shorty, a script you can install on your website to serve up short URLs. I installed it this evening. Now, I can turn http://inventblog.com/2008/12/tip-regarding-websites-seo-grade.html into http://inventblog.com/shorty/44631/.
[note, I installed Get-Shorty in a folder named "shorty" which appears to be the "/shorty/" you see in the url. If I had to do it over again (or if I try to modify my installation), I would name that folder "a" instead, thereby chopping another 5 characters off the url.]
Sure, it isn’t as short as an is.gd url…but it’s a start.
[update: make sure you read the comments...there is a chance that I only partially know what I'm talking about. 
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Actually, URL Shortening services use 301 Redirects to the correct URL in their responses. This is what causes your browser to get to the right location. Which is a good thing, as ultimately the Google Juice is given to the correct site.
301 is the HTTP Status code for “PermanentRedirect,” indicating that the resource you are after will never be located at the initial URL, but that the redirect must be followed to find it.
Google are kind enough to fully account for 301 redirects, and automatically follow them to their final destination, ignoring the URL Shortening service. http://icanhaz.com/google301 for more info. The vote is, therefore, from end to end, which is awesome.
FYI 302 “TemporaryRedirect” is ignored by Google (as it is temporary), and as such should not be used.
Note also that in Twitter links are “no follow”. This means from an SEO standpoint the link has no value. Most blog and many social network platforms use no follow links to keep unethical SEO companies from spamming the resource.
One other note. Google will only recognize one link from any one site. The key is to various incoming links, but from quality sites, like the Invent Blog!
Hope this helps!
It should be noted that many blogs and websites have their robots files set to “nofollow” by default, and so links placed in comments there won’t be followed by the search engines anyway. (I’m not sure if that’s the case with Twitter, as I don’t use that.)
Relying on comment links is a rather dubious SEO tool; one should comment on blogs because they have something to say. If the blog allows links and it observes the “follow” convention, consider it a bonus – but it shouldn’t be a reason for posting.
If you want Google juice, it’s better to arrange link exchanges with other relevant, ranked sites.