SEO URL structure: with category or without category in URL

[nickwhawkr4637]

So Moz says having categories and subcategories in the URL path is best practice so both humans and google knows where they are or are about to go: https://moz.com/learn/seo/url

However, magento does URLs kind of weird and makes numerous URLs based on assigned categories etc. And some say it is not worth the hassle to include categories:

https://northcutt.com/ecommerce-seo/magento-seo/magento-file-structure-and-urls/

So my question: do we go down the road of using canonical tags to do as Moz says is best SEO practice? Or not fight magento and ignore categories in URLs?

We do not have a big catalog and it would be rare if the same product was in different categories so should we just set:

Go to the Stores >> Configuration >> Catalog >> Catalog >> on the right side scroll down to Search Engine Optimization and set Canonical LINK Meta Tags for Categories and Products to Yes.

[azaleanea9a6f6]

I had the same question a while back and found that keeping the category in the URL helped with organizing pages better, especially for large stores. But for client projects where branding and clean URLs mattered more, I went without the category. It really depends on the SEO goals. For more on this, I read a helpful post at https://fortressgrowth.com/professional/seo-for-architecture-firms/ that gave me a better perspective.