What is Click Depth?
Click depth refers to the number of clicks a page is away from its homepage.
All the pages directly linked to the homepage are considered at depth 1. The homepage is always at depth 0.
The pages with greater depth usually do not perform better because search engines will try hard to reach them.
Pages after depths 4, 5, and onwards are less likely to be crawled by the search engines because they have more depth and fewer chances of ranking.
What is the Optimal Click Depth of a Page?
Pages deep inside a website have fewer chances of being crawled by search engines. A click depth of 1-2 is ideal for optimal website performance.
Usually, pages at a depth of 3-4 perform better than those at a depth of more than that.
It is ideal to have your most important web pages within a click depth of 4 or less. Above this range, crawlers may face difficulty in locating them.
What is a Bad Click Depth?
Pages with a click depth of 5 or above are less likely to be crawled by the bots. Without crawling, they will not be indexed in SERPs. As a result, these pages will not receive organic traffic.
Is Click Depth a Google Ranking Factor?
In 2018, Google's John Mueller discussed click depth during a YouTube hangout. He clearly stated that Google gives importance to pages that are easily accessible.
Let’s say a website's homepage is the most powerful page on it; Google will give more weight to those directly linked to it than to those away from the homepage.
That is why most experts recommend placing your most important web pages at a maximum click depth of 4.
Pages directly linked to a website's homepage have more authority, and it gradually decreases as the pages move further away from the homepage.
To get the attention of Google, it is ideal to keep all your important and relevant pages directly linked to the homepage.
Strategies to Improve the Click Depth of Your Website
Here is how you can improve the click depth of your website.
Avoid a Broad Navigation Hierarchy
The first and foremost thing that you should see is the hierarchy of your website navigation menu.
If your site contains only a few primary categories but many subcategories that require multiple clicks to reach, this increases click depth.
Instead, structure your navigation so only a limited number of secondary categories fall under each main category.
This allows users to reach their desired pages with fewer clicks.
Use Internal Linking Between Pages
Internal linking is the practice of linking one page to another on your website. This helps Google reach the other important and relevant pages on your website.
Internal linking also aids visitors in accessing the other relevant information on your website without going to the main navigation menu. It saves time and your web pages from high click depth.
Make sure to add internal links to your high-authority pages or those having low click depth.
Don’t Overdo Internal Linking
Your website may have thousands of pages, so linking every page to the homepage will not work.
Internal linking is a good practice to reduce click depth and improve performance. Overdoing it may lead to a cluttered website where a crawler may get confused while exploring the website.
Takeaway
Click depth matters for larger websites with too many pages or product categories.
Google says it gives importance to the pages that are easily accessible, but it does not clearly indicate that click depth is a ranking factor.
Whether it is a ranking factor or not, what matters here is the user experience. You must take user experience into account first and ensure that all your website’s content is easily accessible to users.