Length of HTML name

How long is the HTML name allowed to be?

[jagdpanther]

Hi, I was wondering if Google limited the length of the HTML name?

[AthlonInside]

The only reason to have a long file name is to stuck lots of keywords in it and it has been argue lots of time in webmasterworld whether keywords in URL help ...

I never agree with it and I don't think it help. So I will never use long file names.

[Birdman]

I tend to disagree, I use the product name, rather than id, in my urls.

[jagdpanther]

Hi, thanks for the prompt replys, but I'd still like to know how long?

[tedster]

David Dulitz, the Google engineer at Boston SES, said that Google does not have a limit on the length of the URI they will index. I heard a bit of buzz around the room when he said that - but that is what I heard him say.

He also conceded that it was "better" to keep your URL under 100 characters, but he didn't elaborate on that.

[geckofuel]

Tedster,
When you say that the URL should be less than 100 characters, does that include everything such as "http://" or just the actual file name?

Best,
Gecko

[tedster]

Yes, the entire URL was what he was talking about.

As I said, he didn't go into a lot of detail. But as an instance, if you look at the Google SERP, you can see how a long URL would hit a problem and be displayed with a line break.

Long URLs also create problems when people try to email them to each other (some email clients also break the URL into parts) - and that's some of the best free marketing you can get. I try not to undermine the viral channels.

[James_Dale]

a bit pointless going overboard on length. Won't you just end up diluting the effectiveness of some of the keyphrases? I assume we're not talking about one long keyphrase here!

[rfgdxm1]

>Long URLs also create problems when people try to email them to each other (some email clients also break the URL into parts) - and that's some of the best free marketing you can get. I try not to undermine the viral channels.

This is a very good point. I know Outlook Express breaks URLs on Usenet. If it also does so on e-mail, since OE is the most commonly used e-mail client this is relevant. The fact OE breaks URLs on Usenet is to if your URL is one you'd expect would get posted to Usenet. OE is by far the most used Usenet client.

[geckofuel]

My interest in this is not in keyword loading URLs but actually in converting dynamic URLs into static URLs and back again via PHP.

This is particularly useful for developing ways to get bulletin board software (in my case UBB) indexed by Google.

[snoopy]

IMHO, I think it all depends on the quality of the site. I personally have a domain with 6 targeted keywords in the domain that does really well for me and even got listed in DMOZ. The site was set up back when that strategy worked in Yahoo but being that I put so much work into the site it carried over into google. Currently I don't use this strategy but it can work.

[James_Dale]

Try [bcmweb.com...]

[netguy]

Snoopy, speaking of looooong domains, this one might even be longer than yours...

[thepersonwithanewideaisacrank-untiltheideasucceeds-by-marktwain.com...]

Would be a pain to fit on a business card though.....

Steve