Our UE team has presented me with a site structure where the content (folders) does not match the hierarchical directory structure (in the CME)

[richcowley]

Our UE team has presented me with a new site structure where the content (folders) does not match the hierarchical directory structure (in the CME).

I.E Sub-sectors, sectors and product pages are ALL just 1 directory off the root.

example.com/sector

example.com/sub-sector

example.com/productpage

FYI 'normal' folder hierarchy would be;

example.com/sector/

example.com/sector/sub-sector

example.com/sector/sub-sector/productpage

I cannot find any SEO disadvantages re; crawl, if anything the SE's will crawl more efficeitly with clearly less depth... higher 'deep content', and a better nav - which is technically a sound solution with link consistency throughout  - 1 to 2 clicks to all pages.

Only disadvantage might be a user confusion... which can be off-set with contextual breadcrumbs. Are there any PURE SEO disadvantages to a structure this illogical?

Note - This does not abuse any Search Engine guidelines.

Thanks for reading, Rich

[Klarke]

Another benefit is possibly shorter URLs.

But I prefer the normal approach of example.com/sector/sub-sector/productpage.