I recently read that shorter URLs rank higher in the search results, but I suspect it might also have an SEO advantage to sort posts, topics, etc... into folders.
Do you recommend shorter URLs, for example:
example.com/1/title-of-the-post
example.com/5/another-post
or a folder containing all the posts and topics of the same type, for example:
example.com/posts/1/title-of-the-post
example.com/posts/5/another-post
example.com/topics/a-topic-name
Generally, the shorter the URL the better it is for SEO, but there are some caveats with this. Yes Google would like short URLs, but Google also would like human-readable URLs.
Ok:
example.com/1/title-of-the-post
Better:
example.com/posts/title-of-the-post
Best:
example.com/title-of-the-post
Even though limited / lack of directories tends to be the 'best', this doesn't always work for website management. Google understands this and in most cases would rank the "better" and the "best" options roughly the same.
As long as your URLs don't use a bunch of randomized numbers / characters for folder directories, and your overall URL length stays below 100 characters, you should be fine. Google pulls more data now from the open-graph tags to use for ranking than data interpreted from the URL.
URL is one of the first thing users and Google sees when visiting a website. Ranking Factors of a URL?
The above ranking factors could assist the websites ability to rank, something easy when building your website worth taking advantage of.
You could gain an advantage by having URL structure both from a rich snipped view and on accurate results which match URL and title. Is also easy when categorizing your URL.
Depending on how the URL is created and how directories and pages are ordered will determine how Google perceives the URL hierarchy and structure. It affects both search engines and user experience.
Is recommended using a structured URL over a flat structure URL to help search engines understand semantics. The simplest the structure is the better.
This would be my suggestion:
Site > Category > Post
