Is it Better to Put HTML Pages into Folders?

[tot]

Hi there,

I've always placed my files into folders. For example, articles go in the articles folder and so on. I keep only a few pages at the top level.

Is there any advantage to keeping ALL pages at the top level?

[Lynn Terry]

Actually, I love directories for organization purposes. It makes file management much easier! Plus the directory name becomes part of the URL, giving you an opportunity to fit more keywords into the page URL

[Steve MacLellan]

Don't get carried away with it though...

Think of directories as projects; this project goes here and this other goes there...

Yesterday I was working on a site for a client. There were 8 pages to the project. She asked me to put each page in it's own directory so she can give out the urls without an extension... you know, www.something.com/somethingelse

Since her site is not the only one I work on ( I have one client with over 60 websites), I won't remember the directory structure for the project files, and all of the related files have the same name: index.html (because they are all in their own directory)

These 8 webpages also used a total of 3 CGI scripts.

The next time I go to work on this site I will have forgotten what has been done, and each time I go to work on this project she can expect an extra 30 minutes added to her cost just because it will take me that long to re-learn the structure of this particular project.

I'm all about organization... just don't go overboard. This message hasn't even touched on the issue of portability.

Regards,
Steve MacLellan

[tot]

Most likely, I'll have a lot of pages per folder. I'm going to put them in folders. I like that idea of having an extra keyword in there. =)
Thanks for weighing in!