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Right now I have URL's which will contain a directory name and a product or category name:

for category pages:
www.example.com/category/widgets

for products:
www.example.com/products/red-widgets

With some programming wizardry, I could possibly reduce the URL's to contain only the key and not the directory, so the above URL's would become:

for category pages:
www.example.com/widgets

for products:
www.example.com/red-widgets

This would make the code of the site a little less manageable, so I do not want to do this unless it will be a substantial benefit to the client. What is the general consensus of URL's such as these?