Google's John Mueller Debunks Myth That Shorter Domains Are Better For SEO Ranking

What makes for a better SEO (Search Engine Optimization) ranking on Google? Many eCommerce websites or businesses who advertise digitally have been working around on all the ways to rank better on Google's search engine. One of these is to have a shorter domain name for websites. However, Google's search advocate John Mueller comes out online to debunk the myth.

URL/Domain Length Not A Factor in Google SEO Ranking

As reported by SeRoundtable, John Mueller has expressed his sentiments on Twitter by saying that contrary to popular belief, having a short and sweet domain is not going to rank you high on Google's search engine. Moreover, it does not have any added SEO benefit for your website. He highlighted that a domain name or the length of your URL is not a determining factor in your SEO success. He added in his tweet that "shorter is not better for SEO."

By bringing this conversation publicly online, he has raised conversations about how the myth has long been practiced and usually leads to a misguided expectation in SEO ranking results. He also mentioned how he is aware of the reason why people like making short domains. Besides, they seem to be more customized and easy to remember for users. But when it comes to its ranking in SEO, that factor has no bearing."I can see how people might like short & sweet domain names, but there's definitely no SEO bonus attached to them like that.", he further said in his Tweet.

Google Admits to Using 'Length Lightly for Canonicalization'

According to Search Engine Land, despite Google's stand on the issue of URL length, the web giant has made it a point that Google prefers to use a shorter URL because of canonicalization. In an interview with Seroundtable, Muller says precisely that Google uses "length lightly for canonicalization, but that's choosing between 2 versions of the same thing (eg, /home/ vs /home/index.html)."

Although not for SEO or ranking purposes, Google prefers a lighter URL to benefit them in terms of convenience since they are just about choosing almost two very similar things- the one being longer. However, although Google has said that URL length is not a determining factor in your Google rank, they suggested to their users to keep their URL characters under 2,000 characters.

In an ideal world, a short domain name or a URL could bypass Google's algorithms and skyrocket you into high ranks. But in the end, there is no shortcut to success. Whether that's building your first business or ranking high on Google- one needs to go through the process. When it comes to ranking high on Google, nothing beats doing best SEO practices on a consistent basis.

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Written by Nikki D