How long may a linktext be? (part III)

Johannes Beus
In the beginning, this was planned to be a short test to clarify ambiguities about the maximum length of a linktext but the initial results only posed more questions than they answered which has therefore now become a trilogy. The reason for this posting is the question that came up in the comments, which wondered if my deliberations about whether Google limits the length of URL's that are used as linktexts are correct. For this reason I set up a corresponding test and am now in possession of the results.

For URLs as linktext, it is indeed also the case that Google will, at most, evaluate the link to the word after the seventh separator. Due to this, talking URLs are loosing a substantial part of their power if too many separators are used. To show this a little more vividly, here an example: for this link

http://www.example.org/sd645920e39/s3416a75f4c/sa1d0c6e83f/s17e62166fc/sf7177163c8

the linked page will be found if the second to last, meaning the 8th part of the URL is being searched for (s17e62166fc):


If you input the name of the last directory, however, the page will not be found (sf7177163c8):


As a rule of thumb we can say that, for talking file- and directorynames a maximum of 4 separated keywords will be evaluated and should therefore be used. For all keywords that appear in the URL afterwards, it seems that no power will be inherited for a link with the URL as linktext. Because I was already at it, I also tested which characters in a link are considered separators. The results do not come as a surprise: „ “ (space), !, #, %, ', (, ), *, +, „,“ (comma), -, /, :, =, @, ~. are considered separators; & and _ are not.


How long may a linktext be? (part I)
How long may a linktext be? (part II)
How long may a linktext be? (part III)
Johannes Beus - on Mon (12/22/2008) at 23:56 PM

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