URL Character Counting - Where to start counting?

Question

I'm rewriting URLs for a website, I know it could affect SEO, but I've no choice but to rewrite them, and 301 redirect the old ones to their new URLs. I want to try to keep the new URLs short and to the point.

When I'm counting the total number of characters in a URL, I shouldn't include the protocol https:// in my character count, right? Should include every character including dots, hyphens, slashes etc, after the initial https:// or something else? I'm assuming I count characters like I'll show in an example below, but want to check, please.

example.com/product/shoes

Would count as a total of 25 characters, right?

Answer 1

Maybe there is more to your backstory that you have omitted?

You count the number of characters in the URL by literally counting every single character in the URL. No more; no less.

I shouldn't include the protocol https:// in my character count, right?

Why not? It is part of the URL. It is also shown in the Google SERPs.

Oh, and should I could a trailing slash too like example.com/product/shoes/ would be a count of 26?

Yes, include the trailing slash too.

Also include the query string and fragment identifier - it is all part of the URL.