Click depth

What is click depth?

Click depth refers to the number of clicks required to reach a specific page from a website's homepage. It's essentially a measure of how deep a page is buried within a site's architecture. For example, a page that's accessible directly from the homepage has a click depth of 1, while a page that requires clicking through three pages to reach would have a click depth of 3. This metric is fundamental to understanding how information is structured on your website and how accessible different pages are to both users and search engine crawlers.

How does click depth affect SEO?

Search engines like Google use click depth as a significant ranking signal because it indicates a page's relative importance within a site. Pages with lower click depth (closer to the homepage) generally receive more authority and link equity because websites typically link their most important pages directly from the homepage. As click depth increases, the authority passed to those deeper pages naturally diminishes, a concept sometimes called "link dilution." Search engine crawlers also tend to discover and index pages with lower click depth more frequently, which means deeper pages may be crawled less often and might appear less prominently in search results.

What is the ideal click depth for important pages?

For optimal SEO performance, keep important pages within 3-4 clicks from your homepage. This recommendation balances practical site architecture with SEO best practices. Your most critical pages—like product pages, key service offerings, and conversion-focused content—should ideally be accessible within just 1-2 clicks. The deeper a page sits in your site structure, the less likely users are to find it, and the less authority search engines assign to it. While some content naturally belongs deeper in your site architecture, anything you want to rank well should be positioned as close to the homepage as possible.

How can you measure and improve click depth?

Several tools can help you analyze your site's click depth, including Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, and various SEO platforms with site audit features. These tools create visualizations of your site structure and identify pages that may be buried too deep. To improve click depth, consider implementing a flatter site architecture with broader navigation categories rather than deep hierarchies. Internal linking strategies can also help, especially creating relevant links between related content and ensuring important pages receive links from multiple sections of your site. Sitemaps, both HTML and XML versions, can help users and search engines discover deeper pages more easily.

What's the difference between click depth and crawl depth?

While related, click depth and crawl depth are distinct concepts. Click depth measures the shortest possible path from the homepage to a specific page through the site's navigation structure. Crawl depth, however, refers to how many steps a search engine crawler takes to reach a page during the indexing process, which may differ from the theoretical click depth. For instance, if a deep page receives many internal links from various sections of your site, its crawl depth might be lower than its click depth because crawlers can reach it through multiple paths. Understanding both metrics helps create a site structure that's optimized for both user experience and search engine discovery.