Optimizing Website Structure: Should You Use Parent Pages in Your New WordPress Site?
When redesigning a website for a service-oriented business, structuring content effectively is crucial for both user experience and search engine optimization (SEO). A common question among web developers and business owners alike is whether to implement parent pages—also known as hierarchical or nested pages—within a WordPress environment, or to maintain a flat structure.
Understanding the Business Context
Consider a service provider that offers multiple core categories such as roofing, plumbing, electrical work, etc. Each main category encompasses several specific services: for roofing, these might include flat roofing, emergency roofing, or new roof installations. Similarly, plumbing could include boiler repair, pipe fixing, and leak repairs.
Traditionally, such a business might have organized their website with a flat URL structure—creating individual pages for each service without clear hierarchical categorization. While this approach is straightforward, it can lead to a confusing user experience due to the lack of structure, and potentially hinder navigation.
The Case for Parent Pages
When rebuilding the website, one strategy is to create parent pages for each main service category—such as /roofing/ and /plumbing/—and then nest specific services under these categories (e.g., /roofing/flat-roofing/). This hierarchical structure provides several benefits:
- Enhanced Organization: Clearly delineating categories and sub-services aids users in navigating the site intuitively.
- Improved User Experience: Visitors can easily find related services within a main category.
- SEO Advantages: A well-structured hierarchy can distribute link equity more effectively and help search engines understand the topical relevance of pages.
Considerations for SEO and URL Depth
While the benefits are evident, some concerns revolve around SEO implications—specifically, the depth of URLs. It’s often suggested that pages closer to the root domain (e.g., /roofing/) may perform better than deeply nested pages (e.g., /roofing/flat-roofing/). Deeper pages may sometimes be perceived as less important or harder for search engines to prioritize.
However, recent SEO best practices emphasize the importance of logical site structure and clear internal linking over mere URL depth. If implemented thoughtfully, nested pages can boost overall topical authority and provide a better user experience, which indirectly benefits SEO.
Redirecting and Maintaining Rankings
Transitioning from a flat structure to a hierarchical one requires careful planning—particularly regarding redirects. Proper 301 redirects from old URLs