when you name a page which do you think is better yoursite.com/keywordkeyword/keywordkeyword.htm or yoursite.com/keyword-keyword/keyword-keyword.htm also how many - can you put before you start to appear spammy, is more than three pushing it i'm guessing yoursite.com/keyword-keyword-more-keywords/keyword-keyword-more-keywords.htm wouldnt be doing yourself any favours and how many charactors would you say is the ideal in page names and folders titles, i know theres no restriction as there are with images, but there must be an seo ideal
This is a total guess, but isn't some priority given to "distance" from the root domain? e.g. domain.com/page.asp is slightly better than domain.com/directory1/directory2/page-page-page-5.asp? I'm not saying this is true, it's just something I've assumed. If anyone knows better I'd like to know to put this personal urban legend to rest.
When you say distance from the root domain you should look at it as clicks from the root domain. A page that is 5 levels or clicks away from your root will have less weight than a page 1 level off the root. So that is a true statement depending on your site architecture and the way your pages are interlinked. I would structure it in whatever way is sensible for the end user. When a user comes in they usually don't want to see something like domain.com/mortages/home-mortgages/fianancing/mortgage.php. Just domain.com/loans/house.php or domain.com/loans/car.php should suffice. Also placing too many terms in your URL, besides looking like spam could dilute any benefit you gain from having the keyword in it in the first place.
i know its always good advice to do every thing for the users benefit, but beyond the first page do they look at the url, i mean with dynamic pages they can get pretty long. the structure of folders was really for my own benifit, its easier to manage, but i will put google benifit above mine for the smallest advantage in ranking