Forum Moderators: open
e.g.
Main -> Directory 1
Directory 2
Directory 3
or a go for more site depth eg
Main -> Directory 1 -> Directory 2 -> Directory 3
I know the idea of having directories with good directory names is a good idea but does the actual depth of the directory structure count for anything?
All the best
Ian
Directory names and depht do have an effect. I try not to nest directories too much and focus on good filenames, also to keep directory names as short as possible. (A,B,C or 1,2,3) The point is that sometimes the URL gets too long for some pages to get in the index. I read somewhere that some SE won't touch pages with more than 128 caracters in the URL, and some others gets your pages penalised past 64.
I read elsewhere that some spiders won't go past 2 levels in depht after the root. I also think that too much keywords in the URL gets out of focus.
Sometimes Web masters can't recognise theyre site after I touched it, and I get payed extra to tell them what I did and where is what now. :)
The depth of the site can count negatively in a few ways.
1) (different topic) If your site is an online business you will not want to have your site too deep, as usability studies have shown that people don't like to go more than 4 or 5 levels in.
2) The SE's like clean structured sites......I believe that the idea is to stay under 4 or 5 levels.
One of the questions, i never got round to asking, due to getting to the forums and forgetting.
I'm really not sure if their is a correct answer. But i use several root level pages, as indexes and the sitemap, with a general index Welcome, then specific index pages related to product manufacturers.
The products them selve are:
on levels 2 to 4 indepth. due to directory level 1's being product titles./
So i suppose, due to ignorance on my part i tried to cover all the bases, the effect with the subindex pages, has for more novel keyphrases, been quite good, but for manufacturer name association, did'nt quite have the effect i was expecting, as these were pages i added about two months ago specifically to compensate for the generalness of the index page, which google could see. I am tweaking them at every cycle of google bot to get them up in the pagerank scores.
Macguru I am using a similar approach at the moment, withsome success, however I was usually looking at single level below the root in a flat structure.
My thinking was that big corporates are likely to have more levels to their site so if the spider has to go down a nmber of levels it might think the site is really from a bigger company.
Agerhart as to the usability of the site, I was looking at putting my in depth/white paperish pages in the lower depths where they would only attract those who are really interested in the subject anyway. The sales will stay one or two levels from root.
caine - i am getting good results for manufacturer association by using the manufacturers name in the page title.
I don't think anybody has categorically stated not to have a directory structure, more what they think is appropriate in their efforts to optimize either in the design considerations for the size dependant on the site, or in modifying the site, to navigational struture overlooking.
'levels deep' does not equate with 'directories deep'
A page can be two directories deep, but still one link deep from the main index page.
