: What is the optimal way to apply categories to a new site? To whit: I run a men's lifestyle Q&A site. I have a total of 25 categories in which questions are submitted. Currently, however,

@Cody1181609

I'm going to guess you've created a 1:1 relationship between your category structure and your URL structure. This is not necessary, unless your CMS somehow enforces it, in which case I'd argue the actual problem here is the CMS.

Nested directories do tell the search engines a little about how your site's organized, though, and only going two deep isn't going to be a significant problem. It's only really going to become a consideration if you have a very convoluted structure.

Going back to my first point, I manage a site in which the categories are structured, eg.:


Fruit

Apple
etc.

Vegetable

Carrot
etc.



...but the urls for all of them are all "top" level, for quick access:


/fruit/
/apple/
/vegetable/
/carrot/


We do this because the various "sub" sections can stand on their own and are only sub-categories for internal organizational purposes. If your categories really are sub-topics, then you might want to leave things as is.

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