Google: Use Canonicals To Be Safe With URL Shorteners

A Webmaster asked on Twitter if let Google know about a URL shortener, so that the URL shortener does "hijack the page."

I think he is worried about the URL shortener out-ranking the main URL. Here is his tweet:

@JohnMu Is there a way to register a URL shortener w/ Google (like goo.gl or bit.ly) so Google knows not to let it 302/301 hijack pages?

— Dan Mozgai (@danmozgai) October 22, 2015

John Mueller of Google responded saying "that shouldn't be happening," adding there is no reason to have to "register" the URL shortener.

John also said that if you are worried, you can "add a canonical to your pages to make it clearer."

Here is John's tweet:

@danmozgai That shouldn't be happening, no need to register. Add a canonical to your pages to make it clearer.

— John Mueller (@JohnMu) October 22, 2015

I've never seen this question before, have you? I am personally not concerned with using URL shorteners.

Forum discussion at Twitter.