: Flat vs. Hierarchical Tree Structure I'm a developer in the middle of the development of a medium-sized website. A requirement that we just received from the resident SEO person on the project

@Harper822

Your resident SEO expert has valid points, but they're all circumstantial.


Decreased keyword density for the words being targeted in the URL, the
longer the URL the less emphasis is being placed on the keywords being
targeted in the URL


This is an important factor if you have a url like mysite.com/solutions/healthcare/benefits/etc/etc/. But just going down one level I don't think will have a noticeable impact.


Decreased emphasis on the importance of the page from a search engine standpoint, the > further the page rests off of the root the less importance is attributed to that page


Whereas this is true, going one more level down won't effect enough to redo the current structure of the site.


Decreased adaptability over time, for example when time comes to
redesign the site again in the future, suppose the navigation changes,
by incorporating the folder you have reduced your ability to re-use
the URLs on the new site and minimize any slippage in the search
results


Yes, you want to have a redesign of your site in mind for the future but it shouldn't be the sole determining factor on the overall structure of your site.


Decreased usability for advertising the URL, suppose [company] wants
to run a print campaign on a particular [product], the shorter URL
would be more user friendly and more likely to lead to a conversion


True, however if you wanted to advertise a particular product you could easily devise other means of showing it off (e.g. a shorter url or have it in a 'featured products' area right on the homepage).



What I'm trying to get at is, whereas these are all good SEO techniques, even combined it's not enough to change the structure of your site. In this situation, go with your web designer instinct. Having more categorized content rather than lumping it all together (especially if your 'solutions' example will contain plenty of organized content itself).

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