URL Length

[Romancing]

What is the ideal length for an item's URL. Theirs a few different options.

A) www.mydomain.com/item-name

B) www.mydomain.com/category-name/product-name

C) www.mydomain.com/category-name/sub-category-name/product-name

Please choose A, B, or C and explain why you made that decision.

Looking forward to the responses.

[EGOL]

**A) www.mydomain.com/item-name **

If you have a very small website then by all means use this method.

**B) www.mydomain.com/category-name/product-name **

... but once your website grows you will wish that you had done this.

C) www.mydomain.com/category-name/sub-category-name/product-name

... and if you have a reeeeeeally big site then you might need this - but only if your categories run wildly big (ever try to open a DreamWeaver folder with 15,000 items? 

I think that where people run into problems is when they try to do this....

www.mydomain/big-green-widgets-with-bells/green-brass-widgets-size-seven/the-ones-with-waffle-treads-and-extra-long-laces-in-yellow

[Gyi]

C. If you have categories and sub-categories, than there is value to organizing your site to reflect that. If you are creating sub-categories for the sake of sub-categories, then I would go with B.

It really depends on the nature of what your site is about. For example, /shoes/running-shoes/specific-shoe-type/ makes sense. However, /shoes/running-shoes/red-running-shoes/red-running-shoes-velcro/red-running-shoes-velcro-hi-top/specific-shoe/ is probably too long.

[AlanBleiweiss]

Let me add the reason for the answers you got.

A) Distinct organization of content is critical to communicating topical relationships and topical separation to search engines

B) URLs of this type provide 1 of the many ways Users can understand clear relationships of content

C) if you go too far down the rabbit hole, it becomes too diluted for search engine value

D) if you go too far down, it crosses the line into confusion for users

[EGOL]

Alan, do you think link structure is more important than folder structure in communicating topical relationships?

[AlanBleiweiss]

Link structure vs. folder structure?  Not sure I understand - links point to content.  Content is located in folders (or just the root folder).  can you clarify?

[EGOL]

If I have separate pages on my site for red widgets, blue widgets and green widgets..... they might not be in the same folder but they might link to one another because I have all widgets pages linking to all other widgets pages.

Would that topical association through links be more powerful than if they were in the same folder but not necessarily linking to one another.

I have always held the belief that link structure is more important than folder structure.

[AlanBleiweiss]

Yes from that perspective, you're correct. Links outweigh folder relationships as signals because links are the "almighty final say".

Of course, if you've got them all in the same folder, then you should also have a sub-nav unique to that folder where each of those pages has the links to each of the other pages.

Then throw in microformat encoded breadcrumbs and that combination is the most potent.

[EGOL]

Thank you, Alan.  I appreciate hearing your thoughts on that.

[AlanBleiweiss]

glad to share what I've found.  I'm blessed in that I get to experiment with methods on several sites that get millions or tens of millions of visits each month

[bdealseo]

folder structure is hidden to users and search engines. so i guess link structure is informative on how a website is organized into folders. your suggestion on different options makes sense. Large websites towards option C and smaller ones towards option A

[DanishWadhwa]

The minimize url length is always better. Keep it minimized, IE allowed maximum of 2000 characters which is too long. Less then 100 is good and less is even better.

B option is good, going into sub-categories make it lengthy.