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directory depth affect SERP rank?

by Steviebone
5 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I know bots use directory paths to understand site structure. I know that keywords in the path are generally a good thing. But does directory path impact SERP rankings?

In other words, all things being equal (same content) is there any advantage or disadvantage to where a page is located within nested sub-directories?

For example, does the page

www.domain.com/page.html

have an advantage over the page

www.domain.com/dir/subdir/page.html

?

Again, assuming it's the same page is it's ranking or relevance diminished by being further down in the site hierarchy?
#affect #depth #directory #rank #serp
  • Profile picture of the author iisark
    Hi Steviebone,

    Directory path is important from SEO point of view, but the importance is minor. In general - the most important pages should be in level 1 directory path. But what is more important than directory path is the site internal link structure. Your most important pages must be accessible from homepage with 1 - 2 (at most) clicks. You also need to set up a proper breadcrumb navigation and a sitemap. This will help the search engine bots to understand your site structure. Your link structure always must be:

    Homepage > Most importnat page > Less important page ...
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    • Profile picture of the author Steviebone
      Originally Posted by iisark View Post

      Hi Steviebone,

      Your link structure always must be:

      Homepage > Most important page > Less important page ...
      This brings up an interesting point favoring the use of a good sitemap for large sites in particular.

      Let's say you have a large book published. The bread crumb might then be:

      Code:
      Home > Books > Medical > Biology > Book Name > TOC > text page
      I could argue that in this case I WANT visitors to find their way directly to a page in question making a deeply nested page at least AS important if not more than one further up the tree. After all, it is the text page containing the content the visitor is ultimately looking for. The broad categories in this case may be less relevant although they do indicate site structure/grouping.
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      • Profile picture of the author Tim3
        I think you answered the question yourself with this one Stevie, multiple sitemaps would be a good idea if you had a site like your book example.
        Personally I would never go more than 2 categories deep for navigation, if the site was that big and complicated a search script would be better perhaps.
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        • Profile picture of the author Steviebone
          Originally Posted by Tim3 View Post

          I think you answered the question yourself with this one Stevie, multiple sitemaps would be a good idea if you had a site like your book example.
          Personally I would never go more than 2 categories deep for navigation, if the site was that big and complicated a search script would be better perhaps.
          Ah this leads me into my next question which is about constructing multiple sitemaps for very large sites. See you in another thread.
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          • Profile picture of the author Tim3
            Originally Posted by Steviebone View Post

            Ah this leads me into my next question which is about constructing multiple sitemaps for very large sites. See you in another thread.
            Haha, at least you didn't post all your questions in one thread, which takes 15 minutes to read and 4 hours to answer
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