URL length: what Crawl Audit check 41 tests

Short answer: check 41 warns when the audited page's URL is 100 characters or longer. Google doesn't set a URL length limit, so 100 is Crawl Audit's own rule of thumb, not a Google rule. The idea holds up, though: short, readable URLs are easier to share, easier to read in a search result, and less likely to be full of tracking parameters.

What Crawl Audit checks

• Pass: the full URL, including https:// and the domain, is under 100 characters.
• Warning: 100 characters or more.

It checks the one URL you audited, after any redirects. It doesn't look at the rest of your site.

What the standards and Google say

• Google gives no length limit. Its URL structure guide says "Whenever possible, shorten URLs by trimming unnecessary parameters", and to "use readable words rather than long ID numbers in your URLs."
• The sitemaps protocol caps a URL listed in a sitemap: it "must be less than 2,048 characters."
• The HTTP standard (RFC 9110) recommends that software supports URLs of at least 8,000 characters.

So a 120-character URL won't break anything. It's just usually a sign of something that could be tidier.

What makes URLs long, and how to trim them

• Tracking or filter parameters, such as ?utm_source=...&sort=...&colour=.... Link to the clean version, and use a canonical tag (check 36) for the variants.
• The full post title as the slug. "how-we-rebuilt-our-inventory-app-for-shops-in-pakistan-and-what-we-learned" can be "inventory-app-rebuild".
• Dates and category folders added by the platform, such as /2026/10/03/news/.

Only shorten URLs that aren't indexed yet, or redirect the old URL to the new one with a permanent redirect (check 50). Changing a URL that already ranks, without a redirect, throws that away.

Our longest URL is 89 characters: https://devmarde.com/tools/crawl-audit/checks/21-machine-readable-pricing-package-structures. It's under the line, but it's the one we'd shorten first.

On your platform

• WordPress: set Settings › Permalinks to Post name (the default is Plain, which uses an ID), and edit each post's slug to a few words.
• Shopify, Wix and Squarespace: edit the page or product URL slug in its SEO settings. Wix creates a 301 redirect automatically when you change a slug.
• Next.js: the URL is your folder and file names, so keep route segments short.

Sources

• Google Search Central, URL structure best practices (updated 10 December 2025), checked 3 October 2026.
• sitemaps.org, Sitemaps XML format; IETF, RFC 9110, section 4.1.
• WordPress, Using permalinks; Wix, Setting up a 301 redirect.