Does using sub-directories hurt rankings?

[rcmedia2004]

Hi,

I noticed all of the top ranking sites in a clients particular genre of business use no subdirectories whatsoever for their html and dynamic files.

Example: Instead of http://www.abc.com/pages/story1.html

>>> they all seem to use http://www.abc.com/story1.html

Am I just imagining this... or is using no sub-directories a very important part of ranking on the first couple pages?

This seemed to hold true in both Google and Yahoo.
(*for the record, I only study this one genre of online business so I can't say whether I've seen this pattern before in other business catagories.)

[Mel]

Using subdirectories and file names that contain keywords can help a bit, but it is certainly one of the minor factors. Still every little bit helps

[Dave Hawley]

or is using no sub-directories a very important part of ranking on the first couple pages?

I don't believe it makes any difference.

[minstrel]

Originally Posted by Mel

Using subdirectories and file names that contain keywords can help a bit, but it is certainly one of the minor factors. Still every little bit helps

Actually, Mel, rcmedia2004 was asking the opposite question - "Does it hurt?":

Originally Posted by rcmedia2004

I noticed all of the top ranking sites in a clients particular genre of business use no subdirectories whatsoever for their html and dynamic files. Example: Instead of http://www.abc.com/pages/story1.html, they all seem to use http://www.abc.com/story1.html. Am I just imagining this... or is using no sub-directories a very important part of ranking

And the answer is, "No". As Dave Hawley said, it makes little or no difference.

[HardCoded]

I believe the most important factor in this general area is the level of nesting...that is link-nesting, not directory nesting. As long as you have links from the front page right to the page in question, it won't matter how deeply nested the directory is.

[ecbb]

But, I believe if your index page is in a sub-directory, or redirects to a subdirectory, it can hurt rankings, correct?

[minstrel]

Originally Posted by ecbb

But, I believe if your index page is in a sub-directory, or redirects to a subdirectory, it can hurt rankings, correct?

Hmmm... it's not that it will hurt rankings per se... but it is assumed that the home page (e.g., index.html or home.html or default.html depending on how the server is configured) will be in the root directory. Many people won't type in www.yoursite.com/index.html but only www.yoursite.com - I can't think of a good reason why you wouldn't place your home page in the root.

Unless you are talking about a subdomain: e.g., http://forums.yoursite.com, in which case placing the index.html page in the subdirectory www.yoursite.com/forums/ is fine and will not hurt search engine rankins.