Keywords in the filepath - some questions

[dataguy]

I'm finally giving in and going to use keywords in my URL's going forward. In setting up the functions to create the URL's from the page titles, I've encountered a few questions where I'd appreciate some advice.

First, do I remove noise words from the URL's? Words like 'the', 'a', 'and', etc?

Second, is there a limit as to how long the URL's can be and remain effective? I allow up to 100 characters for page titles. Is that too long for URL's?

Lastly, I've been appending '.htm' only my URL's thinking that some search engines would favor static htm pages. (This was decided 10 years ago when I started the site.) Should I drop the '.htm' now for new URL's?

Thanks for any insight you can give.

[skweb]

<<do I remove noise words from the URL's? Words like 'the', 'a', 'and', etc? >>
Yes, it is better that way, though, page title is more important than URL.

<<is there a limit as to how long the URL's can be and remain effective?>.
It is best to keep it such that it makes sense to human. The blogspot URL format is good.

<<Should I drop the '.htm' now for new URL's? >>
Doesn't matter.

[ZydoSEO]

I would suggest NEVER trying to morph a page title into a folder or page name in the URL. That is a VERY bad idea IMO. You are going to end up with looooooooong spammy URLs. What are you going to do when you want to change the title of the page possibly to optimize the page better? You will inadvertantly change the URL. Not good.

If you are using some sort of content management system, then use a separate field dedicated to holding the page alias.