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Each web page has its own URL. Some links are simple and concise; others are long and with a complex structure. When you optimize the website, you should consider the effect of the link length and how long they can be.
Content
- What is an URL
- How long an URL should be
- Is There Anything Else I Can Do To Improve My URLs?
- Do spaces in url affect SEO
- What does the link length affect
- Principles of URL building
- FAQ
Conclusion
What is an URL
A URL or Uniform Resource Locator is a page address indicating its location on the Internet. The link to the page is located in the address bar of the browser. The standard URL structure contains:
- data transfer protocol, for example, https://;
- domain name;
- the path from the domain name to the page, which includes a chain of directories and subdirectories;
- may contain special parameters and anchors, for example, the GET method used to get the contents of a resource.
The domain name is part of the URL. Other components going after the site name may vary in length and have different contents. The end result depends on the names of the directories and the name of the page to which it leads.
The URL syntax allows letters, numbers, and extra characters.
How long an URL should be
Browsers' URL length limits
The maximum length of a URL in the address bar is 2048 characters. However, the successful processing of extra-long links by the browser doesn't mean that a search robot will be able to process them too. The appropriate page URL is 75 characters long.
As for indexing documents with long URLs (over 75-120 characters), they are generally indexed quite well, although there may be difficulties in the ranking.
Here you can check the maximum limits of URL length in different browsers.
The maximum URL length for contextual advertising
When creating advertisements in the search network, you should take into account the allowed size of the ad.
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Is There Anything Else I Can Do To Improve My URLs?
Consider the big picture and keep things basic when creating URLs for SEO. Make sure that your URLs contain keywords that are related to the page's content. For web crawlers, the shorter the URL, the better. Follow next steps to learn more:
1
Make the URL keyword-rich
The main keyword should be included in the domain name. Each page's address should include the search query that is used to advertise it. Not only in the title and description of the site, but also in the address, the search query typed in the search bar is highlighted in bold. As a result, it is critical to carefully create the URL: users will pay attention to it and consider it when selecting a link.
2
Use hyphens instead of underscores
If the URL contains more than one word, hyphens should be used as separators. Google indexes each word independently in phrases with underscores and each word separately in phrases with dashes/slashes. The underscore is treated as a connection by Google. The serpstat_tool structure will be treated as a single, indivisible word.
3
Make sure that URLs are simple to read
If a person cannot understand the text of the URL, neither will the search engine. Because many people read a URL before clicking on it, search engines try to make it as easy as possible for them to understand the page's content.
4
Avoid using Cyrillic in URLs
Each Russian letter is encoded as a six-character string; the characters in the address bar will not appear as they did in the URL. In page addresses, only use Latin characters and url with numbers.
5
Block spam with robots.txt
The robots.txt file serves as a link between the site and the search engines. Almost every website has pages that the webmaster does not want the search engine to see, such as sites with duplicate material. You can make these undesirable indexing pages invisible to the search engine by using robots.txt.
6
Use lowercase characters in the URL
In a URL, there has not to be a purpose to use a capital letter. Both people and search engines are confused by capital letters. These are two separate pages with the identical content, according to the search engine. Duplicates are created in this manner. There may be issues with page indexing if this rule is not followed.
7
Use no more than 3-5 words
Longest links are not fully displayed in search results, reducing the importance of keywords in search engines' views, so it's important to consider url length limit.
8
Add Mobile URL Information to the Sitemap
Indicate to search engines that your page is mobile-friendly. Mobile search results are influenced by mobile friendliness. Include mobile devices in the sitemap to be safe with URL optimization.
Do spaces in url affect SEO
For the best SEO URL structure, the URL should not contain insignificant symbols. Spaces are not allowed in URLs. Different restrictions apply to how spaces in a URL are properly encoded depending on where they appear in the URL. Errors are frequently caused by spaces in a title. Some content management systems work around this by substituting plus signs or %20 strings for spaces.
What does the link length affect
URL length and user-friendliness
The length of URL links is important primarily for the common user. Long URLs, as a rule, go beyond the visible part of the address bar and have a complex structure so it's better to stick to a recommended limit. When copying and placing such a link on a third-party resource or in a text document, its text may take several lines.
Short links that have 2-3 easy to understand and catchy words max look more attractive than long ones. Therefore, their clickability may be higher. In case you need to enter a long URL manually in the address bar, it will take you a lot of time.
SEO URL length
Short links often have an advantage over long links in terms of search engine optimization and users' convenience. The maximum URL length in Breadcrumbs is 200 characters.
Since the user factor plays a significant role in website ranking, the presence of clear and structured content on web pages improves the behavioral factors of the entire resource and, therefore, the chances of being seen by a wider audience.
Working on the page URL to make it compact and informative is one of the tools to influence ranking in search results.
Principles of URL building
Developing link structure
Large website pages with a complex structure of categories and subcategories can have long URLs.
Links optimization involves reducing their layered structure. According to search engine optimization, it's better to use short URLs.
For example, a common link: mysite.com/1/2/3/4/5/item100.html, where points 1-5 are the component directory chains.
Enhanced link: mysite.com/catalog/item100.html. Here we see a reduction in nesting size. Using optimized links has a positive effect on user factors.
Setting up a SEF URL
Friendly links are called so because they are human-readable. Such links are convenient for copying and quite informative for a search robot.
A SEF URL or Search Engine Friendly URL indicates friendliness of the URLs. The optimized link text makes the web page address more informative and attractive, and also makes it possible to use key phrases that are important for promotion.
The SEF URL allows you to adjust the length of the URL, and also uses the language matching the website language in the link text.
Configuring URLs in CMS
URL settings for pages can be done in various website management systems. Some systems, such as OpenCart, by default, generate the content specified in the header of the H1 page in a similar URL.
Joomla has a SEF URL option that needs to be activated. In Wordpress, you should use the Yoast plugin to create optimized URLs. A link that reflects the contents of a page and contains key phrases makes sense for SEO promotion.
The appropriate URL is distinguished by concision, informativeness, and keywords. The task of an SEO specialist is to create such page addresses and adhere to the structure of the website.
The link to the page is displayed in the address bar of the browser and in the search results, as part of the snippet, which is another reason for optimizing the URL length. Part of the link that didn't fit in the visible snippet area will be hidden.
The standard URL length in WordPress is 200 characters.
FAQ. Common questions about URL
What is a url?
So what is a URL link, you may ask? A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is a one-of-a-kind identifier that can be used to find a resource on the Internet. A web address is another term for it. URLs are made up of several components, including a protocol and a domain name, that instruct a web browser how and where to find a resource. End users access URLs by typing them into a browser's address bar or by clicking a hyperlink on a webpage, bookmark list, email, or from another application.
Can I use symbols in the url?
Some symbols are not allowed in URLs (for example, the space), and others have specific value in URLs. The url symbol = is used to distinguish a name from a value in HTML forms. To deal with this difficulty, the URI generic syntax utilizes URL encoding, although HTML forms make certain additional substitutions rather than using percent encoding for all such symbols. Spaces in a string, for example, are encoded as %20 or substituted with the plus symbol (+). If you're going to utilize the pipe character (|) as a separator, make sure to encode it as %7C. In a string, a comma should be encoded as %2C
Can I use # in url?
When creating a valid URL, make sure it only contains the symbols listed in the Summary of Valid URL characters table. A % character and a two-character hex value corresponding to the UTF-8 character are used to encode all characters to be URL-encoded. In a string, a # symbol should be represented as %23.
Conclusion
When working on website optimization, it's better to give preference to concise and informative links instead of long URLs with a complex structure. The page address should be short, logical, readable for the user and contain keywords. Such links affect the attractiveness of the entire Internet resource and affect your SEO.
Despite the fact that popular browsers can process links with the maximum of 2000 characters, their final length should not exceed 75 characters. This length of the URL will increase the chances of successful processing of pages by the search engine and positively affect the website optimization.
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FAQs
What should be the length of URL for SEO? ›
So somewhere around 50 – 60 characters is a pretty good number to shoot for. If you go way beyond (say 80+ characters), this is likely to have a negative impact on your ranking.
What is the maximum length of a URL? ›The official documentation specifies a maximum length of 2048 characters for the <loc> element, which is used to submit URLs: URL of the page. This URL must begin with the protocol (e.g. “http”) and end with a trailing slash if required by the web server. This value must not exceed 2,048 characters.
Which URL is best for SEO? ›URLs that are simple, easy to read, and include keywords that describe the content on a web page are SEO-friendly. For example, if you're searching for information about pancakes, a URL like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pancake will help you decide to click on that link.
What is the maximum length of a URL in Chrome? ›URL Length
Chrome limits URLs to a maximum length of 2MB for practical reasons and to avoid causing denial-of-service problems in inter-process communication. On most platforms, Chrome's omnibox limits URL display to 32kB ( kMaxURLDisplayChars ) although a 1kB limit is used on VR platforms.
A URL is the web address that allows your site or blog to be found on the network. The acronym URL stands for: Uniform Resource Locator, and can be translated into Portuguese as: Uniform Resource Locator. The URLs consist of: scheme, subdomain, top-level domain, second-level domain, and subdirectory.
Why are shorter URLs better for SEO? ›Short URLs will help you to avoid having to make corrections (301 redirects) to them afterwards and make them more memorable. Avoid the use of dashes, hyphens or numbers in the main URL domain (everything before .com & .
What is the minimum length of a URL? ›Minimum Domain Name Length Is 3 Characters and Maximum of 63. Hosting for 1 or 2 characters only is too expensive and you might not want it for its not yet open for public use. > No one goes there anymore, it's too crowded. g.co is a very commonly used link shortener, for example.
What does it mean when URL is too long? ›An overly long URL can cause both usability and search engine issues: Any potential benefit you may have by including keywords in the URL will be diluted since it's such a small percentage of the total URL text. Longer URLs are truncated by search engines, in web browsers, and many other areas.
What is a perfect example of URL? ›Example 1: https://websitebuilders.com
This is the URL for the home page of this web site. Let's take a look at the different parts of the URL: The protocol is http .
And llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.co.uk won the title of the longest website URL in the world by the Guinness Book of Records. Turns out, the website is actually part of a tourism campaign for a Welsh village.
How does a blog URL look like? ›
of your blog. You can buy a domain name for your blog at GoDaddy for about $10/year. If you haven't bought a domain name and are using a blogging platform like TypePad or Blogger, then your URL may look similar to this: http://yourblogname.typepad.com or http://yourblogname.blogspot.com.
Does content length matter for SEO? ›The optimum post length for SEO appears to be from 2,250 to 2,500 words. You also want to see your posts shared and backlinked as much as possible. Longer posts are more likely to generate quality backlinks which, in turn, affect ranking factors.
Is Short URL better? ›Should I choose a long URL or a short one? Generally speaking, the shorter and more concise your URL is, the better. A shorter URL is easier to remember, fits easily on printed material, and is more likely to “stick” in someone's head so it can be recalled.
Does changing page URL affect SEO? ›The SEO Impact of Changing URLs
The short answer is very much YES - any significant changes to URLs and URL structures across your website can have a significant impact on how visible you are on Google and ultimately affect your traffic.
Changing image URLs will absolutely affect how those images rank. However, the damage can be mitigated by setting up redirects. Redirecting old image URLs to new URLs will forward ranking signals from the old images to the new ones.
What are the 3 types of URL? ›type: It specifies the type of the server in which the file is located. address: It specifies the address or location of the internet server. path: It specifies the location of the file on the internet server.
Does length of URL affect SEO? ›In short— the length of a URL could affect the appearance of search snippets, but does not affect search rankings. “This does not affect ranking. It's purely a matter of which URL is shown in search. So, to sum up, when it comes to search rankings, neither the URL length nor the number of slashes matter.
What is URL choose the correct answer? ›The correct answer is Uniform Resource Locator. The full form of URL is Uniform Resource Locator. The link address on the internet is the URL. The URL was introduced in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee as well as the Working Group on Internet Engineering.
What is URL and give 3 example? ›URL is an acronym for Uniform Resource Locator and is a reference (an address) to a resource on the Internet. A URL has two main components: Protocol identifier: For the URL http://example.com , the protocol identifier is http . Resource name: For the URL http://example.com , the resource name is example.com .
Can you give an example of a URL? ›Using the URL https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/search/query?q=URL as an example, components of a URL can include: The protocol or scheme. Used to access a resource on the internet. Protocols include http, https, ftps, mailto and file.
What is URL in short answer? ›
URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. A URL is nothing more than the address of a given unique resource on the Web. In theory, each valid URL points to a unique resource. Such resources can be an HTML page, a CSS document, an image, etc.
Does domain name length affect SEO? ›Domain names do have an impact on SEO. The right keywords, spelling, and length have the ability to make or break consumer perceptions or otherwise influence search engines.
How long is too long for SEO? ›The short answer is between 4-12 months. The longer answer has to do with all those factors we discussed that tie into your SEO strategy. If you target low-competition keywords, you can start to see results within 4-6 months.
How many links is too many SEO? ›In the past, Google reportedly said that pages should have fewer than 100 links. It didn't force webmasters to follow this link limit. Rather, Google's guidelines stated that webmasters should use a reasonable number of links per page, with fewer than 100 links being the recommended limit.
What is the best length for a domain name? ›Name length: We recommend short domain names, typically between 3 to 4 terms. Short domains are easier to remember and type which helps users navigate directly to your site. Keywords: Make sure the terms in your domain name are relevant to the content you publish.
How long should blogs be 2022? ›After in-depth industry research and analyzing our very own results from the Wix Blog, we've found that the ideal blog post length is between 1,500 - 2,500 words, with a sweet spot right at 2,450.
What is the ideal content length? ›Here is what they found regarding optimal content length: Long-form content (over 1,000 words) consistently receives more shares and links than shorter posts. This is especially true for research-backed and opinion-forming pieces. Over 85 percent of online content is less than 1,000 words long.
What is the average length of a blog? ›Although your blog post length may vary depending on your topic and audience, it is often best to aim for about 1,500 to 2,000 words for articles or posts. Longer pieces seem to do better when it comes to ranking on SERPs.