Page Depth: What It Is And Why It Matters

In the world of SEO, there are many terms that describe what effect our website and the users who click on it. But what do they really mean? These terms can be really overwhelming, but understanding them can help you boost your website rankings. Page depth can be crucial if you want certain pages to rank and they aren’t. In this post, you’ll learn about the term page depth, what it is, and why it matters when it comes to SEO.

What is Page Depth?

Page depth refers to the number of clicks it takes to reach a specific page on a website. If the page is easily accessible, the page depth is low, whereas a high page depth means the page is buried deeper within a website. In SEO, optimizing page depth helps make important information more easily accessible to users.

The homepage always has a page depth of one, while a page directly linked from the home page will have a page depth of two. Anything after that is a depth of three or more with the number of clicks it takes to reach that specific page.

With a page depth of three or more the pages are more than likely going to perform poorly when it comes to showing up on search engines. This is due to search engines, such as Google, having a hard time crawling the pages. With search engines having a harder time crawling these pages, they will also have a lower page rank. Even when they do crawl those pages, the search engine assumes they are less important since they’re less accessible to website visitors. 

Why Does Page Depth Matter?

Page depth matters on a private practice owner’s website because it can affect the user’s experience and ability to find important information quickly. By optimizing page depth, important pages and information can be easily accessible, improving the user experience and increasing the chances of attracting and retaining clients.

Furthermore, page depth matters because if it takes a user more than three clicks to be reached, then search engines will have a harder time crawling the page. This will cause the page to rank less often in search results. Then, it will have less engagement compared to other pages found within two clicks.

These pages will also rank lower as the search engine crawlers won’t check or even find them as often as pages that have a typical depth of two. If Google sees that a certain page is taking three or more clicks to reach, it may see it as less important than other pages on your site that can be reached in fewer clicks.

Ways to Improve Your Site Structure So Pages Can Be Reached

Improving your site structure makes it easier for the user to navigate. It can be very important, as it keeps a user intrigued with your content without any distractions. With an easier-to-use site, users have a more enjoyable experience and want to continue to use your site if they find the content you have intriguing them. Here are a few ways you can help improve your site structure: 

Use Internal Linking

When you use internal links, you can help lower the number of clicks it takes to reach a specific page. These links help provide additional content and easy access to the new page the user will navigate to. Internal links also help provide a better user experience and can keep a user interested in your content. Using internal links is also valuable to your search rankings as it can help boost your site. This is because it provides page authority for the important pages on your site. Using anchor-rich text when adding internal links also gives search engines easy access to navigate your page.

Utilize Breadcrumbs

By using breadcrumbs, you give the user an easy way for them to know where they are on your website. You can have breadcrumbs on your site that create a navigation bar to help the user see where they’ve navigated and how they can navigate back to their original page. The breadcrumbs can help the user view the categories of the site as well so they have the opportunity to navigate to another page.

Make Sure Photos Are Compressed

When you add photos to your site, make sure you have compressed your pictures. If you don’t compress your photos before adding them they might keep your page from loading. We know from experience when a page or site takes too long to load, we’re more likely to exit and find another site. Compressing photos is an easy way to ensure your page loads quickly. The website tinypng.com is a great (and free!) tool when compressing photos.

Learning new SEO terms can be challenging. But the terms you learn are important as they help you figure out what users need when they access your site. Like the term page depth, you begin to learn little things that maintain your website ranking, and help search engines such as Google, notice more of the pages on your site and help with page ranking. Once you understand page depth you can help make your website a more enjoyable experience to keep users interested in viewing other pages on your site.

Learn How To Improve Your Rankings With Simplified SEO Consulting

Our team at Simplified SEO Consulting wants to help you learn all you can when it comes to getting the right clients to view your page. Having guidance in your SEO journey is important for both you and your website to ensure you get the right users to your site. To start your SEO journey follow these three simple steps:

1. Apply to work with us on your SEO
2. Meet with one of our Skilled SEO Specialists
3. Begin SEO Services for Therapists

Other Services Offered With Simplified SEO Consulting

Looking for a different way we might be able to support you? Our team at Simplified wants to support you no matter what your SEO journey is. We offer support in both our Done For You SEO Services and DIY Online SEO Courses. Simplified SEO Consulting also offers a 12-week Done With You Intensive Program. Check out our blog for more helpful tips and guides to SEO!

About the Author:

Brianna is a Mental Health SEO Specialist at Simplified SEO Consulting. At Simplified, Brianna enjoys optimizing websites and interacting with her clients to help them achieve their SEO goals. Her goal while working with our clients is to ensure they enjoy their SEO journey and to help them understand how the SEO process works.

Looking for extra support? Schedule a consult with the consulting team to see who can help you and how.