Do pages buried deep in site architecture rank worse?

It Depends
English Deutsch Svenska Nederlands Español Italiano Polski

What the Data Shows

Not enough data to draw a strong conclusion on page depth and impressions.

Bottom line: Depth alone is not a reliable predictor of impressions in this dataset.

How to Read This Chart

The x-axis shows page depth from the homepage in clicks. Each bar shows relative impressions for pages at that depth. Look for a steady rise or drop across bars. Here the bars do not form a clear trend, so the relationship is weak in this sample.

Background

SEOs often assume deeper pages get fewer rankings because crawlers and users never reach them. This drives big nav and internal linking changes that can hurt UX and dilute links. Our dataset shows no clear pattern between homepage click depth and relative impressions. The bars vary, and the sample is not strong enough to call a winner across depths.

What to Do Next

  1. 1

    Export depth for top 1,000 organic landing pages high

    Flag any priority URLs deeper than 4 clicks.

  2. 2

    Create or fix 5 hub pages for your top topics high

    Add direct links from each hub to the top 10 priority child pages.

  3. 3

    Find and fix orphan pages in your sitemap medium

    Add at least one in-content link from a relevant indexed page.

  4. 4

    Re-crawl after changes and compare crawl depth distribution medium

    Look for fewer deep URLs and more crawled priority pages.

Best Practices

  1. 1

    Keep key pages within 3–4 clicks

    It improves discoverability and internal PageRank flow. If you push money pages to 6+ clicks, they often get fewer internal links.

  2. 2

    Link to priority pages from hubs with 20+ internal links

    Hubs pass stronger signals than random body links. If hubs are missing, deep pages stay weak even after “flattening.”

  3. 3

    Make every indexable page reachable via HTML links

    Crawlers follow links better than search boxes and filters. If pages rely on JS states or forms, depth becomes meaningless.

  4. 4

    Track crawl depth and organic landings monthly

    Depth changes should move crawl stats and entry pages, not just “architecture.” If nothing changes, you likely moved links, not value.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

  • Flattening everything to the homepage

    It bloats navigation and spreads internal links too thin.

  • Using breadcrumbs as the main fix

    Breadcrumbs rarely add enough unique link weight to change outcomes by themselves.

  • Chasing click depth while ignoring indexation

    Deep pages can rank fine if they are indexed, linked, and match intent.

What Works

  • + Shallower paths can speed up discovery of new or updated URLs.
  • + Fewer clicks often means fewer orphaned pages and better internal link coverage.
  • + Clear hubs can concentrate internal links and pass stronger signals to child pages.

What Doesn’t

  • - Reducing depth without improving internal links often changes nothing.
  • - Over-flattening can weaken topical clusters and confuse category intent.
  • - Navigation bloat can hurt UX and push important links below the fold.

Expert Tip

Depth is often a proxy for internal link quality, not the cause. A 6-click page linked from a strong hub can beat a 2-click page linked only in a footer. Audit internal link sources and placement, not just the number of steps.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does click depth affect rankings?
Sometimes, but mostly through internal links and crawl access. Depth by itself is not a direct ranking factor you can count on.
How many clicks from the homepage is too many for SEO?
For key pages, 3–4 clicks is a solid target. Past that, internal links usually drop and crawling can slow.
Can deep pages still get lots of impressions?
Yes. If they earn strong internal links and match long-tail intent, they can perform well.
Is “pages deeper rank worse” actually true?
Not as a rule. Our data does not show a strong, consistent drop in impressions as depth increases.
Should I restructure my site to reduce depth?
Only if important pages are hard to find, slow to crawl, or weakly linked. Test changes on a section first.
Share: Post Share
Methodology

All data comes from real websites tracked by SEOJuice. We use the latest snapshot per page so each page counts once, regardless of site size. We filter for pages with at least 10 Google Search Console impressions and valid ranking positions (1-100).

Data is refreshed weekly. Correlation does not imply causation — these insights show associations, not guaranteed outcomes.

Related Myths

Does readability affect rankings?

Confirmed

We compared readability scores against relative impressions across 17K+ unique pages.

See the data

Does longer content rank better?

Confirmed

We analyzed word counts across 35K+ unique pages and compared relative impressions.

See the data

Does meta description consistency improve CTR?

It Depends

We measured how description-to-content consistency correlates with click-through rates.

See the data

Want to check these metrics for your site?

SEOJuice tracks all these metrics automatically and helps you improve them.

Try SEOJuice Free