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  4. Does page "depth" matter

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Does page "depth" matter

On-Page Optimization
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  • DenverKelly
    DenverKelly last edited by Jan 25, 2012, 7:31 PM

    Would it have a negative effect on SEO to have a link from the home page to this page...

    http://www.website/com/page1deep/page2deep

    rather than to this page

    http://www.website/com/page1deep

    I'm hoping that made some sense. If not I'll try to clarify.

    Thanks,

    Mark

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • AlanMosley
      AlanMosley @Alex-Harford last edited by Jan 26, 2012, 3:18 PM Jan 26, 2012, 3:18 PM

      I had a quick scan thought the article and it looks likethey are talking from a usability aspect. I am talking from a link juice aspect. Page rank passes only 85% thought a link, so if the home page passes PR of 1 thought each of its likes, the a page one click away only gets 0.85, 2 clicks 0.72, 3 clicks 0.61, 4 clicks 0.52.

      It gets a bit more complicated when the pages link back to the home page, theough dopnt pass back as much either.

      i have a simple explaination here.

      http://thatsit.com.au/seo/tutorials/a-simple-explanation-of-pagerank

      And her is a caculator that you can ry to see how it workes out.

      http://www.webworkshop.net/pagerank_calculator.php

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • Alex-Harford
        Alex-Harford last edited by Jan 26, 2012, 1:54 PM Jan 26, 2012, 1:54 PM

        "if page domain.com/rootpage.htm takes 4 clicks to get to it from the home page then you have a problem."

        I've always believed it's best to keep the clicks down, but I recently read some research that shows many clicks are not necessarily a problem: http://www.uie.com/articles/three_click_rule/ - though the research is from 2003 and I'd say people have become more impatient and expectant of more instant results since then, it's still interesting and proves that 3 clicks doesn't have to be a rule.

        There's also a useful article about "the scent of information" here: http://searchengineland.com/seo-and-the-scent-of-information-26206

        AlanMosley 1 Reply Last reply Jan 26, 2012, 3:18 PM Reply Quote 0
        • DenverKelly
          DenverKelly last edited by Jan 26, 2012, 11:24 AM Jan 26, 2012, 11:24 AM

          Thank you Geoff, Casey and Alan.

          Great answers and exactly what I needed to know.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • AlanMosley
            AlanMosley last edited by Jan 26, 2012, 4:41 AM Jan 26, 2012, 4:41 AM

            Its not how many folders deep your pages is, but how many clicks from the home page it is.

            if page domain.com/deep/deep/deep/deeppage.htm is linked from the home page then thats ok.

            if page domain.com/rootpage.htm takes 4 clicks to get to it from the home page then you have a problem.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • SEM-Freak
              SEM-Freak last edited by Jan 25, 2012, 10:03 PM Jan 25, 2012, 10:03 PM

              I might have misunderstood the question but what really matters is how you get to the content not necessarily the URL structure (relevancy required - no spam please).

              Given this "freshness" aspect i.e. recent links / social shares will enhance the opportunities for this particular page to appear in the results (given other SEO boxes are "ticked"), the "extra" folders will not matter.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
              • CaseyKluver
                CaseyKluver last edited by Jan 25, 2012, 8:08 PM Jan 25, 2012, 8:07 PM

                Hi Mark,

                This will not hurt your SEO at all, here is a video from Matt Cutts explaining the issue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_A1iRY6XTM

                Hope that helps!

                watch?v=l_A1iRY6XTM

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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