Does URL length best practice change with AI Mode?

The belief that shorter URLs boost SEO has stuck around, but it’s not actually supported by how Google ranks content.

Google's John Mueller has repeatedly clarified that the length of a URL doesn’t affect rankings. Google views URLs as identifiers; whether they’re short or long doesn’t directly influence how a page performs in search.

There is a slight caveat. In cases where multiple URLs lead to nearly identical content, Google chooses one as the canonical version, the one it will index and display in results.

In these instances, a shorter and more straightforward URL is often selected. Still, this only affects which version gets shown in search results, not how well it ranks.

Cleaner URLs can look better and be easier for users to read, but they don’t give you an edge in search rankings.

What matters more is having a consistent URL structure that’s easy to manage and maintain.

This brings up an interesting question that’s been raised by a few clients since Google I/O: does URL length differ between AI Mode results and traditional blue link results?

To explore this, we analyzed 3,123 URLs that appeared in AI Mode results across 580 queries in travel, e-commerce, and SaaS sectors. The average length of these URLs, excluding the domain, was 53 characters, ranging from 9 to 173 characters.

Looking at the traditional blue link results for the same set of queries, the average URL length came in at 52 characters, with the same range of 9 to 173.

There’s virtually no difference between the two.

It is another sign that what works for regular Google search still has a lot in common with how content is picked up in AI-powered results, even if the formats and experiences are different - and that it definitely isn't "just SEO".