Installing a site on top level domain directory VS deeper directory

[zigi]

How important it is for seo to install a site on a top level directory vs deeper directory?

example:

www.mysite.com VS www.mysite.com/catalog

many eCommerce scripts such as oscommerce and cre loaded will install by default to /catalog and that's what I've been doing for most of my customer. does it mean it will be harder for them to get good seo results?

Thanks in advance for the input...

[RDK]

Without server configuration, I'll take a stab at this.  I see only one potentially significant issue: Inbound links.  When someone links to the website, do you want to count on them linking  www.site.com instead of www.site.com/catalog  ?    Shorter URLs are easier to remember and they can improve the direct type-in traffic.

For navigational purposes, your server can resolve to the site homepage when the incomplete URL is entered into the browser, but a 301 redirect doesn't carry over all of the PR.

Less significant is the superfluous term in your URL.  Legend has it that shorter, simpler, more relevant keywords in your meta-data and URLs is the way to go.  Will a single additional term drop you in the SERP?  Highly unlikely.  Most ecommerce sites have to use a similar format.

If you don't have reasons of necessity, go with the short URL.  301 redirects (URL iterations 2,3,4,etc to a single URL format) should suffice for those site that have been live for some time.