The Magic of Effective URLs

A shorter URL potentially gives you an edge; experts claim that this is true, but there is no actual proof. While you have up 2,083 characters for a URL, which is all Internet Explorer can read, an SEO-friendly URL should be 115 characters or less, including the http://www. Since this number is limiting, avoid all superfluous words such as "and" or "the." People looking at the SERPs will still understand what your website is about without these words.

According to Matt Cutts from Google, a URL with a keyword or two in will rank slightly higher in the SERPs, however, one with three keywords won't help you rank higher than one with two keywords. We will all have to aim for two keyword URLs since all of the four letter .com names are registered already. Some are for sale at domain-name resellers, however, the prized ones are expensive. Chinese investors have bought a significant number of the world's short domain names to resell. Unfortunately, many are too expensive for online retailers who are just starting out; house.com sold for $24.1 million in 2015.

Everyone is looking for a short domain that is easy to remember to take advantage of word of mouth advertising. Some people are using a number in place of a letter to give them additional choices, although a longer, easily remembered URL is better, since it can represent the brand.

URL shorteners are an option for webmaster stuck with long URLs. A short, customized URL is ideal for social media shares; the final destination receives the link juice. Unfortunately, spammers sent so many people to shady websites; no one who has been burned before will probably ever click on a shortened URL again.

Short domains are better, however, there are none left that consist of all letters. Adding numbers is fine, as long as the numbers sound natural. Otherwise, a longer URL that is memorable works as well.