Creating new url structure for inbound links

[antiquesearcher]

In an effort to make is easier for our clients to link to content on our site we intend on creating a simpler url structure for them: site.com/1234 will 301 to site.com/xyz/abc/1234-this-is-where-we-want-you

Is there a danger of creating new 301's just for this purpose, the goal here is to make it easier for clients to link to content and thus garner more inbound links.

[LukeyJamo]

I dont see a problem with it, Google can tell whether you are trying to do something spammy or trying to make something easier for your website visitors.

In this circumstance, I would say hundreds, even thousands of pages with this type of redirect would be fine.

I would like to hear other people's thoughts on this issue.

[Dr-Pete]

Yeah, if it's essentially just a URL-shorterner, then that should be fine. It's how Bit.ly and other shorteners work - the 301-redirect passes the link "juice" to the appropriate page. I've built my own shorteners for a couple of sites and have never had trouble. For example, this URL:

http://userfx.us/xaha

...goes to...

http://www.usereffect.com/topic/25-point-website-usability-checklist

It's not being built on a 3rd-party platform (just home-brewed PHP).