Q: We shortened deep URLs (/cat/sub/sub/page → /page) — did the restructure pay off?

Q: We shortened deep URLs (/cat/sub/sub/page → /page) — did the restructure pay off?

Lots of people fear this one, so here's a real outcome.

Short answer: neutral-to-positive if redirects are perfect, painful if they're not.

Long answer: a store flattened 4-level URLs to 1-level. We built a 1:1 redirect map for all 2,100 pages and tested every single one before launch. There was a 9% dip in weeks 2-3 as Google reprocessed, then recovery — and by month 4, organic was up 12%, partly from cleaner internal linking and shorter URLs improving click-through in results.

The restructure itself gave a small lift; the bigger risk was simply executing 2,100 redirects without a single miss.

Next step: never restructure URLs without a tested, complete redirect map — and expect a temporary dip, not an instant gain.