Crawl Depth

Crawl depthCrawl depth (also click depth) indicates how many clicks from the homepage are needed to reach a page. Important pages should be reachable as shallowly as possible.Open glossary entry → describes how far a page is from the homepage, measured by the number of clicks needed along internal linksInternal linking refers to links that connect pages within the same website. They control how search engines and users find and thematically classify content.Open glossary entry →. It is often also called click depth.

Strategically important pages should not be buried deep in the site, otherwise they are harder for users and crawlers to reach. A practical guideline:

• homepage: 0 clicks,
• main categories and core services: 1 click,
• important guides and pillar pagesA pillar page is the central overview page of a topic cluster. It covers a subject broadly and links to in-depth detail pages, which in turn link back to it.Open glossary entry →: 1 to 2 clicks,
• detail articles: 2 to 3 clicks,
• less important archive pages: deeper is possible.

These values are orientation, not a rigid rule. What matters is that important content stays easy to reach. Excessive crawlCrawling is the process by which a search engine bot fetches a URL and downloads its content. It is the first step before a page can be indexed.Open glossary entry → depth is a common internal-linking mistake because it weakens the findability and evaluation of important pages.