Friday, March 7, 2014

Google: Keep URL Length Shorter Than 2,000 Characters

SEOs obsess about the smallest things, even how long is too long for a URL.
Google Webmaster Help thread has SEOs and webmasters asking how long can they go for a URL. Google actually answered the question.
John Mueller of Google said, while there is "no theoretical length limit" and they can go forever, Google does recommend you keep it under 2,000 characters. Google's John Mueller wrote:
As far as I know, there's no theoretical length limit, but we recommend keeping URLs shorter than 2000 characters to keep things manageable.
It is interesting cause DoubleClick, a Google company, maxes out on 2,000 characters in a URL. It seems the GET method maxes out on 2,000 characters for a URL and that Internet Explorer can't go beyond 2,000.

If you are unsure if 2,000 characters in URLs is too much, this is what it looks like:
http://www.seroundtable.com/google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219-google-url-characters-18219123.html
So it isn't easy going all the way to 2,000 characters in a URL.
Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

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