Reducing directory levels and improving site structure

[surfgatinho]

I run a few sites that I would like to think these are authority sites within their niches.

What I'd like to do is improve my rankings for some of the more lucrative terms and a particular section which I will refer to as widgets. I'd have thought this would have been quite easy for a site that ranks highly for just about everything else for the region (and has more widget listings than any other site), but apparently not!

One idea I was looking into was reducing the depth of the directory structure and blending widgets in more with the rest of the site.

My current structure is something like this:
For areas (good rankings):
www.example.com/Town-Name/

For widgets (not so good rankings):
www.example.com/widgets/
www.example.com/widgets/Town-Name/
www.example.com/widgets/Town-Name/widget-type/
www.example.com/widgets/Town-Name/widget-item-listing.htm

What I am thinking is removing the /widgets/ and making the widgets more a part of the town pages e.g.
www.example.com/Town-Name/widget-type/

or possibly:
www.example.com/widget-type/Town-Name/

Do you think this is a worthwhile exercise or are there better ways to waste my time?!

[tedster]

I'd say the main question is whether you are just adding the keyword "widgets" to the URL, or whether you are also reorganizing the site's link structure and menus to create a true "widgets" category.

I don't see just adding a keyword to the URL as granting much of a ranking boost. Restructuring the site structure, on the other hand, certainly might. Of course, you might also risk some of your already achieved rankings and authority by doing that.

[TheMadScientist]

I personally think the problem is probably somewhere besides URL structure and my first guess would be internal links.

Remember, cool URLs don't change, so they are something I would look at changing if they don't apply or are really spammy, but it may not be necessary if it's just site depth you are concerned with, because you can actually change the 'depth' of the site through the navigational structure as much as you can through URLs. There's no reason just because you have longer, descriptive URLs it needs to take 4 clicks to get to the information they provide.

If they really need to be changed, because they don't apply, then change them and get it out of the way, but otherwise, I'd probably look at using navigation to 'flatten' the site rather than URLs if that's what you're after...

Also, are you running bread crumbs and if so, how many times are you repeating the word 'widget' to link back to the previous level(s)?

There's some recent threads here about bread crumb navigation you might want to have a look at to get some ideas... IMO:

widget home : widgets : town name widgets : widget type : widget item

Is probably not the best idea from what I've heard / read here.