Hyphens, Directories, And Url Length Options

[EricLaszlo]

Hi, folks --

Any recommendations on:

1. The maximum number of hyphens recommended for a single directory level of the URL or for the filename

2. The maximum number of hyphens total for the entire URL

3. The maximum number of directory levels in a URL

4. The mamimum overall character length of the URL

By "maximum", I of course mean maximum before you start hurting yourself on the search engines!

TIA,
Eric

[Jill]

There's no such thing as "maximum" anything in SEO.

Use your judgment.

[Randy]

Everything in moderation is a pretty good rule to follow. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink1.gif)

On to the question. Matt Cutts said as early as 2005 that they don't automatically penalize for URLs containing hyphens/dashes. However note that he does make reference to an abnormally long (to the point of being unregisterable) domain name with lots and lots of hyphens potentially raising a red flag with them, causing them to view the site with a more critical eye. You don't want to attract that kind of attention, especially not if your reason for using the multiple hyphens is to get more keywords into your URLs.

Too many hyphens makes a URL very UNfriendly for users. So as long as you keep 'em user friendly you should be okay with the search engines.

[EricLaszlo]

Thanks, folks.

I'll stick to the basics on this one...