Short URL vs Long URL?

What's better for SEO, a short URL or a long URL?
The problem I have is that some elements in my site are really deep into the hierarchy, like:
http://www.example.com/Category/Subcategory/subcategory/

Having this amount of hierarchical levels allows me to have a neat distribution of content. Also, each level is keyword rich and allows anyone who sees the URL to know instantly how it works, but I'm a little concerned that having a long URL can affect my ranking when I get indexed.

Thank you very much for your time.

 

In terms of the actual domain, I would choose short every time - Make it easy to remember, sure stuff a keyword or two in there but don't sacrifice this for catchy and memorable.

Once you have the short domain I wouldn't worry about how long some of your pages are, this is a great way to get your more specific keywords for their pages in there. I really think Google's going to care more about the keywords than the length.

 

It does not matter with Google, but you might have problem with Yahoo! or MSN. I believe I read this on seomoz.org

 

i prefer short url.. it's easier for the visitors to remember the website

 

Long url with keywords is better for SEO. Short url is better for type in traffic.

 

Thanks a lot for the answers, I hope not to have any problem with this, because I wouldn't like to change this.

Cheers!

 

Google dnt care about the link depth (i.e. the number of slashes in your permalink won’t matter) So provide search engines with something good and related to the page.

 

Use long or small url, but target good keywords

 

In the general context long urls are more difficult to type rather than the short url and the longer they get there are chances of more errors. Users can remember the short urls easily rather than the long urls and even can type it by themselves. Search engine may give some preference to the longer urls when it could find keword in it.

 

I'm so glad to hear that, thank you!!

 

Short, word more used really depends

 

Static and short URL, use the the specific keywords in URL for the specific page,
ex. if you page containing the content related to web design.
than you should choose URL:

http://www.yoururl.com/web-design-service.html

 

definitely go for short URL with keywords attached.

 

i am totally agree with you. right answer.

 

Now I have another question. Which long URL is better?

http://www.example.com/keyword-keyword-keyword/
or
http://www.example.com/keyword/keyword/keyword/

 

the 1st one, since it is probably targeting an exact 3-word keyword. However, it would also be nice if you combined the two, for a search engine traffic targeting site:

 

Actually, my site has URLs like: http://www.example.com/keyword/keyword/keyword/keyword-keyword-keyword

 

Try not to make such a deep directories. Thats 2 levels deep which means its harder for spiders to reach.

When you are "keyword" are you using the same keyword over and over again??? Thats blatent spamming.

 

Well, that was an example. The majority of content is two levels deep.
And no, I'm not using the same keyword over and over again. I have a taxonomy structure there.

 

In the eyes of Google they would both be the same. The url would be the same with the exception of "-,/".
I often seperate keywords with -,_,. and they get the same results.