Does PR/linkjuice get transfered from directory->subdirectory?

[JorgeGarcia]

If website.com links to website.com/utilities

Does website.com/utilities/business.html  pagerank get benefited from this?

The reason I ask is, I have the option to have:

1) website.com/utilities/business.html

or

2) website.com/utilities-business

My boss says would like to keep the first example and link directory to subdirectory --> File.

I prefer the second example because the potential traffic in it is a source of revenue and I want it to get linkpower from homepage directly.

So, unless linkjuice is transfered horizontally across subdirectories, 2) would be better SEO-wise, is this correct?

Thanks a lot.

[Cyrus-Shepard]

Hi Jorge,

Good question! If I understand correctly, you have a choice between two file structures - is that right? Using option 1, is there anything that would actually live on website.com/utilities/, or is it simply a URL directory with no actual webpage?

If this is the case, both option 1 and 2 would pass the same amount of link juice, assuming you linked directly to each target. That said, it's usually desirable to have:

1. A flat architecture - meaning you keep your structure as flat as possible using the fewest amount of directories as possible
2. Shorter URLs are generally correlated to better rankings and click-through rates.

For this reason, if you are linking directly to each target, I would chose the second option if possible, although the difference it makes probably isn't that great.

Hope this helps! Best of luck with your SEOl

[SEO5Team]

Hi Jorge,

Option 1 would be good if you have a lot of sub pages that can be classified under the "utilities" section. This would also help the search engines to index and classify your site pages better also benefitting you on the SEO side

Option 2 would be recommended if you don't have a lot of content that can be classified under "utilities"

Think about the user first and what would be benefit them. To directly answer your question, in my opinion , the closer the link to the home page the better it would be from an SEO perspective.