Excessive Length URL’s and Social Media
January 5th, 2008 by Michael Gray in Social MediaIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Read my top posts or learn more about Michael Gray. Want more frequent updates follow me on Twitter. Thanks for visiting!
Most CMS systems today are capable of generating clean URL’s. Unless you are dealing with newspapers or magazines where existing legacy systems it’s almost a non issue. However I came across two incredibly horrible URL’s in the same day
and
http://blog.stylehive.com/index.php/weblog/entry/everyones-got-posh-spices-bob-and-youre-next
while these URL’s are bad for search engines they are also bad for social media. Most social media platforms like Digg and Stumbleupon have limits of 255 characters for URL’s, making it impossible to submit them. URL shortening services like tiny URL are looked upon with disdain and suspicion. Tiny URL services are used to mask domains that look spammy or have been banned from the systems. Users are also weary of URL shorteners for fear of being rick rolled. So if you are still on a CMS with old multi parameter URL’s, you should look to get off them sooner rather than later.
Sphere It
January 5th, 2008 at 6:30 am
The second url you cite from stylehive is 93 characters. Your url for this story is 76. I also found http://www.wolf-howl.com/seo/matt-cutts-says-financial-arrangements-should-affect-all-links-within-a-post/ (106 characters) and http://www.wolf-howl.com/tools/what-websites-and-programs-do-you-use-to-get-things-done/ (88 characters)
So, is the length the problem with the stylehive url? Or did you want to include that link for some other reason? Obviously it would be improved by removing the index.php, but it seems no worse than some of the posts that are on your front page (I didn’t search in the archives to find those…)
January 5th, 2008 at 8:42 am
I’m asking this as a serious question. I didn’t think URLs factored into SEO that much. Changing your CMS could cost an organization 100s of thousands of dollars. Is this problem worth that expense?
January 5th, 2008 at 9:34 am
This blog is always something of a mad sceintist’s lab or a room in the willy wonky chocolate factory, and should almost never be used as an example of best practices. I push the envelope here way more than you really should. You are correct “index.php” should go from the stylehive one as should one of the directory/folders. At the very least use you directory for some KW value in this case “fashion” “celebrity” “hairstlyes” would be give you
hxxp://blog.stylehive.com/hairstlyes/everyones-got-posh-spices-bob-and-youre-next
which makes everything cleaner, relevant, and adding value. It also helps you set up a silo style architecture.
Thanks for asking the question and letting me clear it up, sometimes it’s hard to “forget” what I know that you might not, when I explain things.
January 5th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Hey, interesting info, I have never really thought about the length too much in terms of the amount of characters that a site will accept for a link, but more in terms of what is easy to remember or physically type. Most of these CMS systems need to have some sort of plugin activated etc to make url that are easy to understand, and normally that way they can be made shorter. I am referring to CMS sites like Joomla, which have the Search Engine Friendly URL feature. Without the SEF urls loaded, it can get real ugly real fast.
January 5th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
I am a believer in short url’s with exceptions… The first URL you site is usable without the session variables after the index.jsp. I bet the URL is just a copy and paste error or it could be just bad programing.
I use variables all the time for tracking purposes. Example: http://www.domain.com/index.php?source=WOLF-HOWL-BLOG or another way to use variables is to track for commission purposes http://www.domain.com/index.php?commisionID=123 When these are used it calls up cookies and after the cookie is transmitted the url goes back to a normal index.php in the browser. So my guess is that this is just bad coding.
As far as quality linking goes I have never seen the SE’s index one of my url’s with the variable attached. I do always get credit for the link. As far as creating a url in my opinion shorter is better.
January 5th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Dude, you totally missed a golden opportunity to rick roll so many people.. why pass on that??
January 6th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
LOL the links you highlight as terrible are doFollow. :). That was pretty nice of you.