Search engine crawlers follow links to discover pages. If a page requires 7 clicks to reach from the homepage, the crawler must traverse 6 intermediate pages — and since crawl budgets are finite, deep pages may be crawled infrequently or not at all.
Beyond crawlability, click depth affects PageRank distribution. Internal link equity flows through each link in the chain, diminishing with each step. A page 6 levels deep receives a fraction of the equity of a page 2 levels deep.
What SearchVitals checks: The Architecture audit maps the URL tree of crawled pages and reports the distribution of click depths. Pages exceeding 4 clicks from the homepage are flagged as warnings; pages exceeding 7 clicks are a critical finding on large sites.
How to fix deep pages: Add contextual links from high-authority pages directly to important deep pages. Restructure navigation to surface key content higher in the hierarchy.