Max URL Length

[BonusS]

Hi,

We are launching a new site where some of the urls are fairly long - up to 200 characters.

They are "friendly" urls without querystrings but it is a large site with lots of sub folders so they
have to be quite long.

Is there a limit? Will URLs of a certain length not get indexed?

[bj]

I don't know for sure about indexing but I do know that urls that are that long are going to cause all sorts of problems in some quite unexpected ways. For instance, if you send in email most email programs are only set to handle so many characters per line, so your urls end up broken. And urls that are long that show up in Google Ads, especially in narrow side columns, can break layouts and cause your home url to be put in the "trash heap" list for annoying the site owner (Yes, I've done this to an adwords person.) There are forms for which urls of this length may also be at issue, since form fields are usually limited in characters. And I suspect that some programming also has limits to lengths of strings. In general I think you're way over the top on length. There has to be a better way for you to arrange the hierarchy of your site. Also, Google seems to only go so deep. I think there are some articles on Matt Cutts' blog about that.

[timmathews.com]

What is the website URL so we can have a look?
If you are using PHP, you can do "mod rewrite" in your .htaccess file to change the urls to SE and copy/paste friendly urls, and of you are using IIS, you can do a similar function with 3rd party software.

[ebuzzmaster]

A good rule of thumb is to go no deeper than three directories from the root. Keep your hyphens down to 3 or fewer for the entire URL(otherwise it will look like keyword stuffing). If you are aiming towards categorizing your content by developing these subdirectories, consider the first level of categories being a third level domain - www.mysite.com and product.mysite.com, etc. Then, you can get your first big passes at the domain level, and can limit your full URL. Also, choose your 3rd levels carefully - hyphen rules count in those, too.

BTW - even if you have a huge site like Amazon's, you can keep the directory structure pretty flat. The deepest one I saw just now playing on their site is 5 directories, but two of them look like site programming language directories rather than content categorization.

Consider, also, a mod_rewrite at your htaccess file (or equivalent, depending on your platform). You can rewrite the URL so that it is rendered flatter than it actually is on your server. (Funny - I just previewed my comment and saw that Tim Mathews made the same recommendation about mod_rewrite!!)

[timmathews.com]

Originally Posted by ebuzzmaster

A good rule of thumb is to go no deeper than three directories from the root. Keep your hyphens down to 3 or fewer for the entire URL(otherwise it will look like keyword stuffing). If you are aiming towards categorizing your content by developing these subdirectories, consider the first level of categories being a third level domain - www.mysite.com and product.mysite.com, etc. Then, you can get your first big passes at the domain level, and can limit your full URL. Also, choose your 3rd levels carefully - hyphen rules count in those, too.

BTW - even if you have a huge site like Amazon's, you can keep the directory structure pretty flat. The deepest one I saw just now playing on their site is 5 directories, but two of them look like site programming language directories rather than content categorization.

Consider, also, a mod_rewrite at your htaccess file (or equivalent, depending on your platform). You can rewrite the URL so that it is rendered flatter than it actually is on your server. (Funny - I just previewed my comment and saw that Tim Matthews made the same recommendation about mod_rewrite!!)

Tim Mathews is the proper spelling of my name, thanks. Please edit and spell correctly. PLEASE!
:)

[bj]

Fresh from Manhattan - Whata beautiful city. Man, to hell with Jamaica, I want to live in Manhattan

Geez, Tim, if I'd have know you were there I would have jumped a bus in and treated you to lunch!

[timmathews.com]

Oh, B.J.,
I fell in love with the city. Where you at again?
I got into Manhattan on Friday, and I nearly cried Monday when I was hopping a flight out...
I had such a blast...
Absolutely the best city I have ever been to. When I first got there, I jumped the "EL" where the shuttle from LaGuardia Airport dropped me off and I was thinking, man, this is crap. It looked just like chicago. Then, I got to Manhattan...
WOW!
Man, I love it! I was thinking I was going to be a few pounds lighter from all the walking I was going to do... Then I found little Italy.
Foly Huck. Great food.
Here are a few pics of my excursion:
The statue of liberty pic looks like a bad photoshop job, heck, they dont tell you waht way to look on the back of those boards...
;)

[bj]

I'm 60 miles due west of Manhattan, and get in fairly frequently. Used to commute in once upon a time. I know the city pretty well for someone who doesn't live there, especially downtown since that's where all my wholesale customers were.

Little Italy is fab but nothing beats eating in a Canal St. Chinese Restaurant where nobody speaks english and you order by pointing. And if you haven't been to Bruno's Italian Bakery on LaGuardia . . .

And to keep this on topic, I could do Manhattan in a directory no more than three deep . . . :)

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by BonusS

They are "friendly" urls without querystrings but it is a large site with lots of sub folders so they
have to be quite long.

Check this: http://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/uri-choose
If you think that your urls are human friendly, then they are for search engines friendly too.

[Webnauts]

A general rule is, to keep them up to 72 characters. I am suspecting that you are trying to spam your URL. Can that be the issue?

[parkoskar]

i.e

Directories Up to 3 Levels
Url: 72 characters..

I have a site www.whiteurls.com , right now its has only orls and i am thinking of making a separate article & News category.
Do you all think it will be good as then the directory level will go four down ?

...
Search Engine Marketing Solutions

[PumaSpirit]

As mentioned above, creating sub-domains would be a better way to go. In addition...
How many people would remember a URL that is a mile long? Much less want to have to
type it into a browser?

A domain name should be easy to remember. We design sites for visitors, but some of
us sometimes forget they do not behave like SE bots.

www .mysiteisthebestandthedomainnameisstuffedwithkey
wordsgeeeztrytorememberthatoneandwhotheheckwantsto inthefirstplacelol .com

Note: Had to break up the "URL" since it already caused problems with the forum layout.

And this is only ONE problem you will have using a long domain name.

[TrafficProducer]

Google say this about how long URL's may be

URLs not followed /Redirect URL too long
URLs not followed /Redirect URL too long. Google encountered a redirect URL that
was longer than the suggested maximum in RFC 2616 (255 bytes). ... ...

More Google URL stuff

[jesterx]

72 characters

and remember that people have better things to do than type out a long stupid domain. if your doing it makes sure it is part of a gimmick or something fun otherwise your waisting your time.

short sharp domains are the best.

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by jesterx

72 characters

I already mentioned that above. But as I didn't explain above why.

Can you please tell us why 72?

[timmathews.com]

Wow!
Webnauts, you look SO different in that picture!