Long URL's
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So I'm super new at SEO and learning a lot. I'm a small business owner and enjoy doing it myself.
Are long URL's good or bad?
Like this:
Is that too long? The german-shepherd-puppies-the-girls is an actual page with actual content.
Do those hurt me?
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Excellent questions thanks.
I wish to further the question by asking if Google or Bing actually penialise you for long url such as in the original question or as in my own site: http://www.ditalia.com.au/wedding-dress-wedding-dresses-and-bridal-gowns-designed-and-made
Do the SE's look in the urls for the search terms? I was told they no-longer do that.
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Just to clarify, 70 characters is a good rule of thumb for title tags, however that limit is largely in place due to the number of characters that Google displays in search results.
I personally think 80-100 is a good rule of thumb for maximum length on a URL but it's not always feasible, and the best practice for URLs is not as clearly delineated as title tags.
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Hi Joshua,
There's not a perfect cutoff mark as far as URL length. In general, I try to clearly identify the keyword targeted as the page URL, and stick to one subfolder, or occassionally 2 subfolders on a larger site. Beyond that, I try to avoid being redundant, which is the biggest issue with the example you presented - you should try not to duplicate long strings inside the URL - in this case using "german-shepherd-puppies" twice is what makes it too long and redundant.
Assuming you want to target the keyword "Long Haired German Shepherd Puppies", I would rather see a URL like one of these:
- http://www.farnorthkennel.com/puppies/long-haired-german-shepherd/
- http://www.farnorthkennel.com/long-haired-german-shepherd-puppies/
Then for the actual page for Lava or one of the other dogs you'd probably do one of these:
- http://www.farnorthkennel.com/puppies/long-haired-german-shepherd/lava/
- http://www.farnorthkennel.com/long-haired-german-shepherd-puppies/lava/
That is an effective URL that isn't too keyword stuffed and isn't redundant.
Taking a further look at the site, you could also consider options like these:
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Hi Joshua
A lot of SEO's recommend 70 characters or less, unless you are seeking particular long tail key word combinations. I agree
I recommend you read the following articles:
In particular the title tags section: http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo/basics-of-search-engine-friendly-design-and-development
and this blog post http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/title-tag
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