Search Engine Optimization Programs | SEO Tutorial Program

Avoid Subdirectories

 Two basic things most search engine spiders look for in a website for ranking are the readability and relevance of its contents, and the level of easiness/difficulty in accessing the various web pages under the same URL. Elaborating on the latter point, that is, how deep is the position of a webpage from the root directory weighs a lot when it comes to determining page rankings and hence in search engine optimization. Unfortunately this is an aspect that is overlooked by many a webmaster, who lays out the basic structure of how it is been hosted in the server.

 Search engines view and rank web pages through the eyes of an average netizen. Hence, those web pages that one might feel irrelevant or is taking too many click to navigate to will always be ranked lowly, for it is relevant info and quick access to web pages is what a person browsing the web expects from any website and not a unending maze of links and web page after web page.

 Therefore, from a search engine optimization point of view, it is advisable that while designing websites and hosting it in a server, it will be a prudent idea to have all the pages in the root directory or in directories that lie close to the root directory. In some cases, if the page numbers extend to thousands, it might not be possible to have all the pages within an arms’ length of the root directory. But, still, make it as much as close as possible. For small websites – having only a couple of dozens of pages – it is important that every page exist within few directories from the root directory so that a netizen browsing the particular website can access all the pages with minimum navigational efforts or mouse clicks. Remember, search engine spiders consider the pages in the root directory or nearer to it as important ones and not the pages lying away from the root.

 If most of the web pages lie away from the root directory, in subdirectories, irrespective of what all search engine optimization techniques one have used in those pages, search engines won’t consider those at all for page indexing. This is, in fact, a classical example of how search engine optimization can go wrong or become ineffective owing to a tactical mistake in placing the web pages optimally.

 Tail Piece: For those who are new to the term search engine optimization or SEO, it is the way of designing or tailor making a website to suit the search algorithm used by the popular search engines. It employs a variety of factors from selective web design to use of keywords and keyword density to lure the search engine spider to rank a particular website. One such method is to avoid subdirectories as much as possible so as to enhance accessibility to the various web pages.