George S. SEO Expert

How to optimize the nesting level of pages on the website

The structure of the site affects the speed and effectiveness of promotion. If the site tree is simple and structured, search robots will be able to quickly and efficiently recognize and crawl the content of landing pages.

What is page nesting level

The nesting level of a page is its location in the site hierarchy relative to the main page. The parameter is indicated by integer numbers from 1. Just imagine that the website is in the form of a tree:

Its trunk is the main page, which has a nesting level of 1. Branches that branch off from the trunk are documents with a nesting level of 2.

Branches that branch off from other branches are web documents with a nesting level of 3, and so on.

Why are nesting levels important for crawlers?

The higher the level, the more difficult it is for the user to overcome the path from the main page to the one where the needed information is located.

1. Main page is considered the root level. It has the most weight.

2. Documents in one click from the main one. They are of medium importance.

3. Sections in two clicks from the main one. Links to them are on web pages with a nesting equal to 2. They are less important.

4. Page with nesting >3. It has minimal significance in relation to the previous ones.

The nesting level of a page affects whether the robot will get to this page or not.

How to calculate the nesting of pages on the website

In addition to the number of clicks from the main page, SEO optimizers also count nesting by URL. The latter is assigned to each document, so through it you can get to the desired page directly, bypassing the long way from the main page.

Count just slashes (not folders). For example: http://site/folder1/folder2/folder3/folder4/… In this case, folder 4 has a nesting level of five instead of four.

Since the nesting level is the number of clicks to the desired page from the main one, the parameter is not counted from the entry point to the site, which can be any web page.

Search robots are less loyal to long URLs. As a rule, such documents may remain unscanned in the final result. But if such a URL is in the sitemap, it will be crawled normally.

How to set up and optimize nesting levels on the website

When setting nesting levels, you should be guided by a simple rule: the farthest documents should be no further than two clicks from the main page.

If the information is hidden deeper, search engines will find the resource too complex in terms of structure for visitors. This will affect the place in the search results.

The exceptions are large sites and online stores, where such a structure is forced. In this case, resource owners are helped by a site map, which is located both on the site itself (html) and in the root folder (xml). The map helps the robot to detect and index even those documents that are hidden deep.

Conclusion

The nesting level of pages affects the promotion, so do not ignore the recommendations of SEO optimizers for setting it up.

Make pages with a maximum nesting level of three. Such a resource will appeal to both visitors and search engines.

If you cannot do without documents with a nesting >4, it is better to carefully think over the structure, fixing it in the sitemap. Also use social media posting with links to the deepest pages as an additional promotion method. You can also audit a site page to find problems with specific pages.

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