One reason it’s important to give thought to your site’s structure right from the start is because changing it later can have a negative impact on your site.
After reading some posts on Yoast and other reputable sources I became convinced that I needed to change the structure of my site and that, once I did, traffic would skyrocket.
However, when I did this my site suffered a major and sustained decrease in traffic. Luckily my revenues were not badly affected, but it was extremely disheartening to see traffic drop to figures previously seen one year ago. 🙁
A lot of hard work had been undone almost overnight.
The lesson learned? Other than, F_ck you, Yoast?
I did not need to change my structure no matter how convincing those expert articles seemed. No surprise, the Yoast articles on the subject were all flogging their related course.
A lot of SEO websites and blogs are not much different than fitness & weight loss, dating or self-help ones.
The formula they all pitch is the same: they convince (manipulate?) you that you have a problem or a need which only their technique, course, plugin or book can solve. The solution is usually unconventional, going against the grain, fast, oh-so-easy and sometimes even “fun”. All for the low price of $X, but hurry as the offer "expires soon".
At the end of the day, Google is damn smart and can figure out your website just as well as a human. So much so, that you shouldn’t fall for the line about complicated “Google algorithms” used by SEO sites and tools as the justification for their (convincing) sales pitches.
Like me, you have probably seen plenty of competitor websites that far outrank yours even though they break all the SEO rules these guru websites and SEO tools say are sacred red lines you must not cross.
Cater to human beings and you will be fine.