Long URL's and SEO

[dan_popescu]

When adding a new page to my website I usually name it www.mysite.com/new-page-title.htm (whatever the title is, but I never use more than 3 words in the url for the new page). I do this for SEO and because it makes sense. Sometimes this practice will result in pretty long url's. E.G. www.mysite.com/blue-white-widgets.htm

Could this be a problem as far as SE ranking is concerned? And does it help them in any way?

Thank you
Dan

[Nick_W]

In my experience it has a definate positive effect on SEO. I try to keep my urls as short as possible but it's also helpful from a maintenance point of view to name your files descriptively.

keyword naming of files
keywords in title
keywords in h1

The combination seems to work well. At least for me ;)

Nick

[dan_popescu]

Nick
How long is reasonably long? How many letters for a file name/entire url?

Dan

[Macguru]

I try to keep targetted pages URL's under 65 char. long for some SE. All depends on how the receiving SE deals with long URL. Some wont do past 128 char. and some will do. "One size fits all" is getting out of date.

Rule of thumb : Keep them short, with the good stuff in domain and filenames. Folder names tend to make too much noise in weak places, sometimes.

[xbase234]

I've been descriptively naming files for years now for the purpose of maintenance and ease of retrieval.

Does anyone know the longest url character length that Google will spider?

[bcc1234]

The longest I've had was something like:
www.domain.com/DisplayPage?site.num=12345&page.num=12345&cat.num=12345

went ok with google

[Marcia]

How does the page do with rankings, bcc? I'm seeing dynamic URLs creeping in a little bit, but not too many ranking well - and there are a LOT of long, dynamic URLs out there.

I'd think it might be an advantage to have a reasonably short domain name in order to leave room for descriptive directory and page names.

[skibum]

The Google rep on the panels at SES suggested that it is good for users to use file names appropriate for the content of the page. He suggested that

www.wildwidgets.com/blue-widgets.htm

is better all around than:

www.wildwidgets.com/pr1234543.htm

[bcc1234]

How does the page do with rankings, bcc?

They do ok, but the static ones would do better.

[caine]

I also keep page url title's descriptive, but becuase i use deep directory structed themeing, i allow the directories and the pages, to create descriptive sentences

[daz9nyc]

When creating a descriptive URL for SEO purposes, does it matter how you seperate your keywords. For instance, which one would be the most SEO friendly for search engines (below). My question centers around using underscores versus dashes or nothing at all. I also find myself wondering wether to keep it clean and make it an index file in a new directory or just making it a html file. What works best, anyone?

thanks.david

www.wisgets.com/blueexpensivewidgets/
www.wisgets.com/blueexpensivewidgets.html
www.wisgets.com/blue_expensive_widgets.html
www.wisgets.com/blue-expensive-widgets.html

[pageoneresults]

Hello daz9nyc, welcome to WebmasterWorld!

Your 4th example is the best option based on my research and testing.

www.wisgets.com/blue-expensive-widgets.html

Try not to get overly hyphenated in the file names. If you can keep the number of hyphens to 2, that is probably the safe route to take. Although there are many who go beyond that and it works just as well. I think if you do it in a way that is purely descriptive of the page content without going overboard, you're okay.

[georgeek]

I have had some success with this quite long arrangement;

www.keyword1-keyword2-keyword3.com/keyword1-keword2-keyword4

www.keyword1-keyword2-keyword3.com/keyword1-keword2-keyword5

www.keyword1-keyword2-keyword3.com/keyword1-keword2-keyword6

but I have tried it on one site only so far and the jury is still out.

[jbrausch]

I recommend ditching the hyphens. Many SEO's recommend them, but I have reviewed lots of top SERPs for the top search engine. I just don't see it.

The way I tabulate the results, a hyphen in the domain is currently a -35 on a scale of -100 to +100. A hyphen after your keyword anywhere in the URL is a -21. A hyphen before your keyword anywhere in the URL is a -32.

That's the hyphen part. The reason many SEO's recommend the hyphen is so that "search engines can read the keywords." Here are some scores that show that the same search engine does know how to see the keywords in the domain and URL even when they are not separated by hyphens:

Having the keyword in the URL is a +85. Having the keyword in the domain is a +92. Having the domain start with the keyword is a +57. Having the domain start with the keyword following immediately by a dot is a +60.

Of course, the domain name and the URL are only a tiny factor compared to page content and link structure, but if we are looking at the URL alone, I recommend using your keywords, but dropping the hyphens between them.

I hope that helps.