Flat vs Hierarchical URL Structure

[WSteven]

Hi,

We are redoing our site structure and I was wondering what are the benefits of having a flat url structure. For example store.com/product instead of doing store.com/category/product.

I noticed sites doing it both ways, even moz.com has both structures ex: moz.com/learn/seo and when you clck on something it brings you to moz.com/seo-expert-quiz (even though following the previous logic it should be moz.com/learn/seo/seo-expert-quiz)

Please advise, Thanks!

[Chris.Menke]

Stephen,

The flatter the architecture, the more apt pagerank is to reach all the pages of your site.  However, that has to be balanced with navigation that helps visitors most easily get to where they want to go on the site, which typically runs counter to presenting them with completely flat navigation. If you think of giving visitors fastest access to the content on your site that is most important to the majority of them and then require somewhat more numerous clicks to get to less important info, you'll probably do OK.