Google’s John Mueller recently specified that URLs should be kept below 1,000 characters in length. This number was specified in a Google Webmaster Central hangout during a discussion about URL length since it is interlinked with SEO. Though URLs usually don’t reach or exceed 1,000 characters, it’s not impossible. Different factors like parameters and sub-folders can expand a URL’s length. You don’t need to be bothered about URL length till you are close to the 1,000 characters mark.
Mueller has recommended that as a rule of thumb, URLs should be kept short and shouldn’t be made longer than what they need to be. Web browsers have the ability to handle URLs to 2,000 characters in length, which makes Google’s limitation of 1,000 characters significant. In 2009, in a reply to a thread on Google help forums, Mueller had stated:
‘’We can certainly crawl and index URLs over 1000 characters long-but that doesn’t mean that it’s a good practice :-).’’
Here is the video of John Mueller’s full statement-
Therefore, keep URLs short but don’t get tensed if they become a bit long. You only need to ensure they are below 1,000 characters.
“These are just different URL structures that some sites have. Some sites use parameters, some sites use folders with file names. Everyone does it slightly differently.
The important part for us is that we can take that one URL that you have, we can crawl it, and we can index it with that URL and pick up the content. How you determine which URL to use is ultimately up to you.
The only thing I would watch out for is it should be, I think, less than a thousand characters – which you probably have to work pretty hard to make URLs that long.”
