Does Google prefer short URLs over long ones? This is an SEO myth that just won't go away. Learn when URL length matters and when it doesn't.
The latest installment of YouTube's Ask Googlebot video series discusses URL length.
The following questions are answered by John Mueller of Google.
“Do short URLs actually work better than longer URLs, or is this just an SEO myth?”
His response suggests that URL length doesn't make as much of a difference as some people think, but there is one case where URL length does play an important role in search:
See Mueller's full response below.
Google's John Mueller's comments on URL length
URL length doesn't matter for SEO, Mueller explains, except in one situation where it may.
As a personal preference, Mueller likes to keep URLs under 1,000 characters, as it makes the data easier to track.
“The answer is no. The length of the URL doesn't matter. You use the URL as an identifier, so the length doesn't matter. Personally, I try to keep it under 1,000 characters for easier monitoring. The number of slashes doesn't matter either.”
This advice is consistent with recommendations he made back in 2019, when he first suggested that URLs should be 1,000 characters or less.
The only area where URL length has an impact in Google’s ranking system is canonicalization.
If multiple similar URLs have the same in-page content, Google will combine all the signals from those pages into a single URL.
This URL is called the canonical URL, and it's the one that users will ultimately see in search results.
Google may consider URL length as a factor when deciding which URLs to display in search results.
“Currently, we are aware that the only part of the system where URL length affects anything is the canonicalization part.
Canonicalization occurs when multiple copies of a page are found on a website and one URL needs to be selected for indexing.
If a shorter, more user-friendly URL is found, the system tends to choose it.”
Mueller clarified that normalization has nothing to do with rankings.
This means that while URL length may affect the appearance of your search snippet, it doesn't affect your search rankings.
“This doesn't affect rankings, only which URLs show up in search. In other words, neither the length of the URL nor the number of slashes matters when it comes to search rankings. Use a URL structure that works for you and that you can maintain in the long term.”
When Mueller is talking about forward slashes in URLs, he’s talking about another SEO myth that flatter URL structures result in higher rankings.
Some sites flatten their structures and shorten their URLs, believing that this will affect their rankings.
A URL like this: homepage.com/blog/blog-title
It will be as follows: Homepage.com/blog title
It's a wasted effort, and Mueller says there's no benefit to a flat URL structure.
sauce: Google Search Central
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Featured Image: YouTube.com/GoogleSearchCentral
