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Yes, there is a difference - but it is variable. If you have links pointing to a redirect which: 1) chains (redirects stringing together) 2) is not a 301 3) lands on a page with highly dissimilar content (in machine terms, think Boolean string similarity), to Google's last active ache of the redirecting URL ... then your links are likely to be nullified, or they won't help you very much Use redirects that point to (mathematically / %-wise) similar content. Use 301s, don't chain your redirects If you meet all of these conditions, then some links can continue to supply a decent amount of ranking authority, even through redirects