If I started backlinking a tinyurl that led to my site. If I went and checked to see how many backlinks I had, it would show 0? Would this make my backlink history untraceable?

I believe you're right. A shortener is a redirect script. The backlinks you post with a shortener will count for the shortener but not follow to your landing page.

This is what I dont understand. Why do people blast shortened URL's do they do anything at all?

Couple reasons I know of. They don't know html so they can't hide the link in the anchor text. Or they're posting to forums and such that don't allow html so a short link works better than a long one. Lastly, most forum / discussion spammers don't have a clue how SEO and links work. I guess another reason is the shortener doesn't divulged any clues to whats on the other end of the link. Great if redirecting to a content locker or pharma, gambling, copyright or adult website.

One last thought, I used to run my own shortener site so I used shorteners to track clicks and where they came from. Give me analytics for my spam links.

Originally Posted by kvmcable

I believe you're right. A shortener is a redirect script. The backlinks you post with a shortener will count for the shortener but not follow to your landing page.

A proper URL shortener should use 301 redirects; which means all the 'juice' is passed straight through...

http://searchengineland.com/analysis...-you-use-17204

If it's NOT a proper 301, then you won't get the SEO benefit at the end page.

This works exactly the same as any other 301 permament redirect.