Google's John Mueller said on Twitter that URL structure is "not so much" important, rating it a 1 out of 7 - whatever that means. He said the bigger concern is changing URLs can take Google time to pick up on and pass signals from. So stick with your URLs for the long term, if possible.
Here is John's tweet:
Structure not so much (1 out of 7), but all URL changes take time and can be painful. Choose and keep for the long run.
— John ☆.o(≧▽≦)o.☆ (@JohnMu) August 14, 2017
This is not a new topic, earlier this year we covered how Google said folder level is not important. And we covered it several times before.
The main thing is not how long or deep your URLs appear to be but how quickly GoogleBot can discover those URLs and who is linking to them.
Of course, when you change URLs, that is like updating your address with the post office. Mail might get lost and you need to make sure to communicate the address change to as many people as quickly as possible to decrease the likelihood of mistakes.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
