The hub-page coverage map

The hub-page coverage map

Leaf pages at scale go orphan without a deliberate hub layer above them. Map the hierarchy before generating leaves.

Build the map top-down:

1. Root hubs — Owner: SEO. One per top-level template (all locations, all products). Gate: each root hub links to every category hub beneath it.

2. Category hubs — paginated or faceted lists grouping leaves. Gate: every leaf is reachable from exactly one category hub within 3 clicks of the homepage.

3. Click-depth audit — crawl your own site, record depth per URL. Gate: 95th-percentile leaf depth is 4 or less.

4. Inbound minimum — every leaf has at least 2 inbound internal links (one from its hub, one contextual). Gate: zero leaves with a single inbound link.

5. Pagination handling — deep list pages use self-canonical pagination, not noindex on page 2 (that strands deep leaves).

— Crawl depth is a ranking and discovery signal; buried leaves don't get crawled, let alone ranked
— Hubs also concentrate link equity downward instead of leaking it sideways

Ship gate: don't generate leaves until the hub map guarantees a 3-click path to each one.