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I'm currently in the process of migrating a site. I have some example links like this:

example.com/pricing/
example.com/contact/
example.com/about/
example.com/about/person-a/
example.com/about/person-b/
example.com/about/history/

I was thinking of organize all pages within categories, one of which would be the /about/ category.

Technically, I feel like /pricing/ and /contact/ fall under the /about/ section. Should I change these links to:

example.com/about/contact/
example.com/about/pricing/

There are only about 100 pages in all. I could go the opposite route and have my links be:

example.com/pricing/
example.com/contact/
example.com/about/
example.com/person-a/
example.com/person-b/
example.com/history/

This would be structured in a way where I'm not categorizing pages into groups and instead favoring the shortest link possible while also maintaining readability for humans and search engines.

To add on top of this, I have links that have been in use for ages that are following one method (ie example.com/category/page/), and other pages that have been in use following the other method (ie example.com/page/).

I feel like I have three options for this migration:

1. Keep all the links the same, avoiding redirects

2. Make all links as short as possible

3. Put all links into categories, making most of the links longer (not sure what the advantage is here other than satisfying a taxonomy)

What should I do?

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    I feel like /pricing/ and /contact/ fall under the /about/ section. I completely disagree. Contact and About have special meanings. About is about the company. Contact is how to contact the company. Pricing is product pricing. None of these are similar. Do not do this. Keep them separate. Cheers!!
    – closetnoc
    Jul 26 '18 at 16:29
  • Thanks. Should I even organize my pages into categories? A lot of my links would be shorter if I didn't, but I would have to do some 301 redirects from the old link if I change them (which I don't mind doing). Does it matter?
    – rpivovar
    Jul 26 '18 at 16:31
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    As far as Category, using it or not is a personal decision, however, you should be consistent. As far as keeping the links as short as possible, I am not sure what you mean by this, but it does not seem necessary to me. Descriptive URLs and link text benefit a sites search. Cheers!!
    – closetnoc
    Jul 26 '18 at 16:32
  • Thanks for the help. I mean like, instead of example.com/about/person, it could instead be example.com/person/. I feel like this would be shorter and a human could read this link and know what they are clicking on - but maybe a search engine would, for whatever reason, prefer example.com/about/person/ .. maybe it doesn't matter at all?
    – rpivovar
    Jul 26 '18 at 16:35
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    Every one of your pages is about something. Using your logic, every page could fall under the "about" directory. Keep your URLs short and simple.
    – Stephen Ostermiller ♦
    Jul 27 '18 at 11:13
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example.com/pricing/
example.com/contact/ -location, phone number and other ways the visitor or customer can contact your business
example.com/about/ - talk about your company background, vision and mission, history

example.com/team/person-a/
example.com/team/person-b/

example.com/careers/ -  - talk about latest job positions, what its like working with us etc

just redirect the old version of the site to the appropriate new version page

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