We develope some large sites like 700+ pages, and we have a new client that has been using DNN in the past and we are in development for the newest version of their site. 

In the past when a client wanted a short URL (ie before DNN 9) we would create a top level page (no parent) and then redirect that to within the site where the short URL should point. (ie the URL would be mydomain.com/sale then redirect that to mydomain.com/department/products/sale)

This client has use the Advances settings, SEO under page settings, and in DNN 8, used the page URL function when creating a new page to define the short url rather than keeping the URL schema of the page structure within the website. 

In my mind this created confusion, as they have like multiple departments with lots of sub pages so the top level for the department url schema is different than their subpages, (ie, top level department url might be mydomain.com/deparments/Customer-Service normally but they have changed to mydomain.com/Customer-Service but then sub pages under this section then are mydomain.com/deparments/Customer-Service/page1)

Looking for any guidance if there is a better way one over the other for this to work, or if anyone has any deeper knowledge on this and what is can affect in the long run going with one option over the other. This is coming up more and more and would like to have best practices to offer best advice to my clients.