Folder Depth

[leporello]

yeah i really doubt that the depth of an article is a problem. Some pages will just naturally need to be X folders deep. I wouldnt worry about being 4 folders deep.

[actyper]

What are you basing that on? Also from what I have seen, this major google change is far from over.

Why would google or any other SE have an issue with organization?

During the last major update a lot of my subpages disappeared from the rankings, they were all amongst the top. They were all 3 levels deep. I've talked to others and they say that might be a reason why they were dropped, but I guess I'm just speculating right now.

[MJ]

Also from what I have seen, this major google change is far from over.

I agree, I think it actually was a rollback so will be interesting to see once the real updates kick in. Got any thoughts on it yourself?

[Ridge]

During the last major update a lot of my subpages disappeared from the rankings, they were all amongst the top. They were all 3 levels deep. I've talked to others and they say that might be a reason why they were dropped, but I guess I'm just speculating right now.

I am 99% sure your specific issue is not a google wide problem with folder depth, as Kaus has said several of us have sites with very organized structures which is encouraged by google guidelines and tips. Of course w/o knowing your site I am only guessing that there was other factors.

I agree, I think it actually was a rollback so will be interesting to see once the real updates kick in. Got any thoughts on it yourself?

Well, it's obvious something drastic is taking place, I'm still gather data and talking to lots of people. So I don't have anything earth shattering to tell about. But if anyone has SERP data over the last few months, check it out and compare it to data now and you will see some really cool things and some not so cool things.

I don't have the time needed to do REAL in depth analysis of what is happening, because I'm planning for some adjustments that I think we all will have to make soon. <--- Is key - One thing we all should know about google is that they make changes, and we have to adjust. So trying and finding: what those changes are - Why they are making them > Which will lead you too some semi-logical conclusions. If you have google analytic, this is a good place to start.

As a lot of people have commented, there is a lot of SPAM sites littered in the SERP's right now. Google is usually on their game, and Bing recently has been making a noticeable impact with heir 100 million dollar marketing campaign, and now they get all of Yahoo's Search data to dig into. We are about to see a great war of SE's I think, which will be good for everyone.

In short, I dunno wtf I'm talking about, but everyone should be paying attention right now because a lot is happening quick.

Oh and as far as a "rollback" which has been thrown out there by MM as a possibility, and I'm sure he is right, but only half right because ALL of google did not get rolled back if so. So far I'm 99% sure that country specific regions like google.ca (example only) etc did not get rolled back. But again, just my thoughts and I by no means am an expert or have the time to do a full blown investigation. But, I do have some cool stuff I'll be sharing with the forum soon.

[Randy Ray]

I use whatever folder structure makes sense for the site and the user. I don't worry much about "folder depth". On the other hand, it's rare that I'll need to go more than 3 folders deep with a URL, either.

[Zilla]

What do people think is better - keeping the folder structure shorter by having multiple words in a folder name seperated by dashes, or keeping folders all single words.

eg:

mysite.com/poker-sites/pokerstars

vs

mysite.com/poker/sites/pokerstars

I use a mixture of both but be interesting to hear peoples thoughts on it.

[MJ]

Thanks for reply Ridge, I can say one thing: I had good sites lose (not really lose, change?) rankings and new sites skyrocket.

Also, on bigger sites - my traffic has changed a LOT - even while traffic is up and it's the same "theme" traffic, the keywords have definately changed as I'm seeing completely new terms in analytics while some old ones are gone.

I'm not good at evaluating this type of stuff, nor compiling the data, thats a long ways down in my affiliate marketing career lol. So, I'm just going to be watching it all unfold I guess. Good time to be concentrating on development and content anyways, especially for someone like me who knows nada about seo.

[MJ]

Also, PokerStars takes it down 5 folders and I'm guessing they had some good advice somewhere along the line

xxxhttp://www.pokerstars.com/poker/games/draw/2-7/single/

[Johnbear]

I read it. I think your point is valid though, that the major reason pages that are five or more folders deep don't rank is because they don't get enough link juice.


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