Click Depth is said to be the number of navigation clicks a visitor has to perform to reach a particular web page. We will examine several cases where the term click depth is applicable to reach pages and how this navigation process impacts the overall site SEO. Two main areas to reach the destination web pages are analyzed here, one for internal click depth and the other for external click depth.

Internal and External Click Depth
Before we begin lets clarify the two different areas and the terms used so readers can better grasp the whole concept.

• Internal Click Depth is the number of clicks the visitor needs to perform to go from one page to another page within the website.
• External Click Depth is the number of clicks the visitor needs to perform the go from the external page where a reference exists, to the destination page.
• Destination page is the page a visitor wants to get to.
• Source page is the initial page where the visitor sees a reference to the destination page.

Click Depth from the website's home page - Internal Click Depth
When a visitor arrives at the home page of a website, he has to perform a number of clicks, subject to the site's navigation elements, to reach a web page. These clicks represent different levels of the underlying navigation structure.

Optimized sites tend to focus the navigation elements towards the page content. Therefore the navigation structure is likely to be different for a given set of web pages, as the site owner ideally should try to increase the focus and relevancy to a web page using the surrounding navigation element and position them so these are easily accessible to visitors.

Consider also that different paths or clicks to reach a page can be followed by a visitor. For instance if the products carried, span over different marketing segments, the navigation exposed for each of these segments, should relate to the web page viewed. If page1.html talks of a specific accessory, the surrounding navigation structure should be organized and focused in accessories. For complex websites like e-shops, this is typically done dynamically, so when a visitor clicks a product's web page the navigation is generated on the fly showing relevant results for that product.

Having stated the process of dynamic navigation, the number of clicks to reach a page varies and it's subject to the particular path, one may decide to follow from the site's home page. Therefore the click depth can be non-deterministic for search engines, because they cannot predict the clicks a visitor may follow to go from the home page to the destination page.

In addition the click depth may vary, based on many other factors, like for instance when the store owner decides to implement tours for a new product presentation only to new customers. Are these pages of lower importance? How search engines can calculate the page importance based on the click depth alone, when the later is dynamic? The answer lies again within the navigation structure and inbound links. Basic navigation must always exist. A sitemap, or the top categories of products or a page to the customer service section. These are fundamental elements for navigation that can show to search engines a possible click depth to reach any page.

The concept is completely different with what others believe when they talk of a fixed click depth and run various SEO experiments bringing up unsubstantiated results. Fixed click depth should exist for the basic navigation pages not for every page. Visitors try to reach a page for a reason and they want to see a navigation to go back or to reach other related pages. If they have to perform 10 clicks to go to the previous page it means the navigation structure for page access is poor.

Click depth is influenced from external links - External Click Depth
Search engines can weigh differently pages referenced externally. If a page is listed on a different domain the click depth equates to a single click. This is an important factor for search engine marketing (SEM). The page may be 5 clicks away from the home page of the shortest path when the visitor goes through the internal website navigation. However because the web page is exposed externally only a single click is required for visitors to reach it.

Obviously other factors come to play for external click depth like the ranking and page importance of the external site that hosts the page link. A high importance for an external page, will result to high web traffic for the destination page. The number of external sites that host the link to the destination page is another factor.

There are numerous examples online where the destination page has an internal click depth that tends to infinity because the destination page is unreachable for various reasons. A document that is posted for convenience on one website but has nothing to do with the website content, can have a link that is more popular that the home page of the website. It is an extreme case and it's only mentioned here to understand the various factors that can alter the destination page importance.

Factors that can influence the Click Depth
Click depth can be influenced by other important factors, on how the link to the destination page is presented.

• The content that surrounds the link
• The link title, that may entice a visitor to click it and reach the destination page
• The structure of the URL to the destination page

These are important elements that can be overlooked and can help the SEO navigation of websites. Search engines bind the title to the URL. They can weigh differently the same link when presented with different titles or different surrounding text. Much like the difference between the destination page meta-tag title and the destination page link.

The web content for each level within the clicks the visitor performs to get to the destination page, must also have some sort of relevancy to the destination page's content. The sequence of clicks has to be taken into account, when the navigation is structured, as it can affect the overall site's SEO. Visitors may not click a link that looks irrelevant to what they are looking for.

Conclusion SEO and Click Depth
As we see in this document the click depth and different navigation paths can influence traffic towards the destination page. The SEO for the destination page, can be seen differently from within the website than externally and is highly dependent on the internal and external click depths as well as on the dynamic navigation structure of the website and surrounding content. The more relevant areas the navigation structure covers for each page viewed, the higher the chances for a visitor to click the relevant links.