A website with a good structure contributes to a positive user experience. Hence, it is the key element that can make or break your website. It’s that simple. The only way to structure your website well enough to please Google is to make it SEO friendly.
This article covers the best practices and tricks to make your site structure SEO friendly.
What We Cover in This Article🧐
|
What is Website Structure?🏗️
Website structure is like the blueprint of your site. It includes the arrangement of your homepage, category pages, individual content pages, and navigation menus.
A good site structure enhances user satisfaction and helps search engines understand your site’s content. By partnering with nearshore software development companies, you can ensure cost-effective and high-quality service, which helps you design and maintain a robust website architecture that supports both user experience and SEO goals.
Why A Site Structure is Important for SEO📈
Maintaining an ideal website architecture for SEO strategy is important for the following reasons:
Better User Experience
When visitors can navigate your site smoothly, they have a better overall experience. This keeps them engaged and encourages them to explore more content on your site.
Easy Navigation
A solid URL structure helps visitors to find what they’re looking for. If your visitors can’t find information quickly, they might leave your site and never come back.
Helps Google Understand The Structure of Your Site
Google prefers websites with clear structures. A well-organized site can help search engines understand the page content on your website better, leading to higher rankings in search results.
Internal linking also helps Google understand your pages’ architecture better. A good internal linking strategy constitutes a top-notch website layout. The messier your website’s layout, the harder it is for Google to understand your web pages and how they connect.
That’s why it’s important to prioritize internal linking strategy when organizing your site.
Linking pages to each other lets Google know which pages are connected and linking to a specific page multiple times, makes Google understand that you consider it important.
Why are the above mentioned factors important?
Simple, no amount of SEO optimization will increase a user’s session time on your site unless they’re having a smooth experience. If your content is disorganized, people won’t be able to find what they want quickly.
They might leave and look for another site leaving you with fewer visitors and missed opportunities.
What is a Good Website Architecture?✨
A good website architecture is well-organized. Everything is easy to find, related topics are grouped together, and there’s a clear path to navigate through every page.
This helps both visitors and search engines understand the layout and find information quickly.
Hence, the structure of your website should ideally:
- Group related content together.
- Arrange these groups in a clear, logical order.
- Highlight your most important pages.
There are 2 types of architecture for websites: Flat and Deep.
Flat website architecture has fewer levels (4 or less) between the homepage and the deepest pages, usually just one or two clicks. This structure makes navigation quicker and easier for users, and it helps Google crawl and index the site more efficiently.
Deep website architecture, on the other hand, involves multiple levels of pages (more than 4), often requiring several clicks to reach the deepest content.
Your site should take users to the desired pages within as few clicks as possible.
Another good idea is to use topic clusters to organize your site. These are groups of related content that link to each other. This way, you can keep related pages together under the right categories and avoid orphan pages (pages that are not linked to any other page or section of your site).
How to Create an SEO-Friendly Website Structure🔧
There are many different ways to create a website architecture that is optimized for SEO. Let’s look at them:
Plan Your Site Structure
If you’re building a website from scratch and have all the information needed, all you need to know is how to arrange all of the information on your site.
Since it’s a good idea to follow a logical hierarchy, you want to create a funnel design for your site, starting from the broader topics and diving into narrower ones.
Your site should have these 3 main components:
- Homepage – where the general information about your site goes.
- Categories – to introduce different topical categories.
- Individual pages – for more specific and in-depth information.
Homepage
Your homepage contains information about your site on a broader level, making it the top of the funnel. It should give a quick overview of your site’s content and clearly state your main message so visitors know they’re in the right place.
Navigation
Now that your homepage is ready, you need to focus on navigation to help people move around your website and gather the required information.
The three main aspects to focus on for improving navigation are:
Header Menus
Header menus are located at the top of your website, typically in the header section. They often include links to important sections or pages of your site, such as home, about us, services, products, blog, and contact.
Header menus provide an easily accessible navigation structure that is visible across all pages of your site. Users expect to find important links here, making it a central hub for navigating your site.
Generally, a horizontal navigation menu design is widely used across sites.
If your horizontal navigation bar is getting crowded with too many options, consider switching to a drop-down menu structure.
Drop-down menus are particularly effective for ecommerce websites offering various products. Users can first see a simple horizontal menu, then choose a category to explore more options within that section.
Footer Menus
Footer menus are located at the bottom (footer) of your website. They usually contain links that are less frequently accessed but still important, such as privacy policy, terms of service, sitemap, or social media links.
Footer menus complement the header menu by providing additional navigation options. Users often scroll to the bottom of a page to find these links, especially if they are looking for specific information or legal disclosures.
The point of Navigation menus is to make your content easy to access.
Breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs are a navigational aid that shows the user’s location within the website’s hierarchical structure. They appear horizontally at the top of a page and indicate the path from the homepage to the current page.
Breadcrumbs help users understand where they are on your site and navigate back to higher-level pages or categories with ease. They are useful for sites with deep hierarchies or complex structures, such as e-commerce websites with numerous product categories.
Although breadcrumbs are not very necessary for smaller sites with fewer number of pages, a site with more pages has a deeper site architecture. This depth can make it impractical to include all parent pages in the main navigation across the entire site.
Breadcrumbs provides a navigational trail that shows the user their current location within the website’s hierarchy.
Taxonomies
Taxonomies allow you to categorize your content based on relevant criteria such as topics, types (e.g., articles, videos), tags, or attributes (e.g., location, date). This helps in organizing large amounts of content into manageable groups.
By creating clear taxonomies, you provide users with structured navigation paths. For example, a blog might use categories like “Technology,” “Health,” and “Travel,” enabling users to browse articles based on their interests.
This feature is useful for blogs and websites with a lot of content, enabling users to discover related content through different methods.
You can use two specific functions for this purpose:
1. Categories – organize your blog posts, product pages, or service pages into categories and subcategories.
2. Tags—Add keywords related to your page’s content. Clicking on a tag allows users to find more pages covering the same topic.
Remember, the ultimate aim is to ensure your website is easy to navigate. Don’t go overboard with dozens of categories, subcategories, and tags; this will defeat the purpose of helping users find what they need easily.
Internal Linking Structure
Internal links are links that direct you to other pages within the same website. When you create links between pages, you’re telling Google s that these pages are connected, which helps it in understanding how your website is organized.
Here are some tips to keep in mind while internally linking your pages:
- Use descriptive anchor text that includes relevant keywords by performing keyword research when linking between pages. This not only helps users understand where they’re going but also boosts SEO for the linked page.
- Link related content together to guide users to more in-depth or relevant information. This reduces bounce rates and encourages users to explore further.
- Ensure consistency in navigation and linking across your site. Users should be able to predict where links will lead them based on their previous experiences.
- Periodically review your internal linking structure to identify broken links, outdated content, or opportunities to create new connections using SEMrush’s site audit tool.
Comment
byu/shankarj68 from discussion
inSEO
Landing Pages
Not everyone will initially land on your website’s home page.
When people search for specific information, Google might directly display your most detailed pages, directly leading them deeper into your content funnel. This is why understanding search intent for particular keywords is necessary.
Once you understand what people are looking for, you can strengthen your website’s setup with the following types of landing pages:
1. Service pages: These pages explain your services and include links to related services and information.
2. Product pages: These pages provide concise product descriptions and include breadcrumbs to guide users through your online store.
3. Informational guides: These pages offer comprehensive content on specific topics to ensure users find satisfying answers.
The goal is to ensure that people can easily navigate your website even if they arrive at it through a specific search.
This way, users can find what they’re looking for without too many clicks or distractions.
Optimization of Your Site’s URL
Make sure your URLs clearly describe the page’s content. This helps Google understand how your website is organized and structured.
For example, use “yourwebsite.com/about-us” instead of “yourwebsite.com/page123”.
Consistency in your URLs is key to making navigation smooth for both users and search engines.
Here are some simple tips to keep in mind:
- Include relevant keywords in your URLs, but keep them natural and readable. This helps Google understand what the page is about.
- Shorter URLs are easier to remember and share. Aim for concise URLs that convey the main idea of the page.
- Use hyphens (-) to separate words in your URLs instead of underscores or spaces. For example, use “yourwebsite.com/our-services” instead of “yourwebsite.com/our_services”.
- Minimize the use of dynamic parameters (like “?id=123”) in URLs whenever possible. Static URLs are preferred for better search engine optimization.
Use HTML and XML Sitemaps
A sitemap is like a map that lists all the pages, images, videos, and files on your website. It helps Google understand how your site is organized.
An HTML sitemap is specifically for users. If someone can’t find a particular page, they can look at a complete list of all the pages on your site.
An XML sitemap is a file on your website that lists all the important pages and content in a structured way. It helps Google understand and crawl your site more effectively, ensuring they find and index all your pages and media files, like images and videos.
If there are errors in your sitemap, it could mean that search engines can’t find or understand some of your webpages.
When search engines can’t process pages, they might decide not to include them in their rankings. This could potentially affect your website’s overall ranking.
Use tools like Google Search Console or SEO tools like SEMrush to identify specific errors in your sitemap, such as pages not found or incorrect URLs.
Regularly monitor your sitemap for any new errors or issues. Keep it updated whenever you make changes to your website’s structure or content.
If you’re looking to reach out and build connections with potential clients, check out these SEO cold email templates to help you craft the perfect pitch that gets noticed.
Best Practices to Improve Your Site Structure🔝
With time, your website is going to evolve. As you create new pages or update existing ones, and as services and products change over time, the structure of your website will need regular adjustments to keep things up-to-date to ensure your site is structured.
Here are some best practices to be on top of the page structure.
Update Outdated Website Content
Content is constantly being uploaded to Google, and the competition to stand out keeps increasing. What once ranked well on Google gets outranked by competitors within months.
For non-evergreen pages, you need to constantly update them to stay on top of the competition.
Search engines prioritize fresh and relevant content. Updating old posts with new information, keywords, and links can improve your SEO rankings and attract more organic traffic.
Beyond content, check for broken links, outdated plugins, and other technical issues that can impact user satisfaction and SEO. Conduct periodic audits to identify outdated content. Prioritize updates based on traffic analytics, user feedback, and industry changes.
Avoid Keyword Cannibalization
Keyword cannibalization occurs when multiple pages on your website target the same keywords, causing them to compete with each other in search rankings rather than each page ranking well independently.
This confuses the search engines leading to lower rankings for all pages involved, reducing overall visibility in search results.
Hence, it’s important to ensure each page on your site focuses on unique keywords to maintain a clear and effective site structure that enhances SEO performance.
Stick to the Basics
Although it’s tempting to focus on technical aspects like HTML, CSS, and site structure planning, it’s equally important not to overlook fundamental SEO practices.
Remember to:
- Add ALT Text: Describe images with ALT text to improve accessibility and help search engines understand their content.
- Remove Duplicate Content: Avoid having identical or very similar content across different pages, as this can confuse search engines about which page to prioritize.
- Rewrite Meta Descriptions and Title Tags: Craft unique and compelling meta descriptions and title tags for each page, incorporating relevant keywords to improve click-through rates from search engine results pages (SERPs).
- Mobile Optimization: Ensure a mobile-friendly website. With a growing number of users accessing the internet via mobile devices, mobile enhancement is crucial for both user satisfaction and SEO.
- Page Speed: Improve your website’s loading speed. Google loves fast-loading pages because they provide better user satisfaction and can positively impact search engine rankings.
By prioritizing these basics alongside technical SEO, you provide search engine crawlers with clear signals about your content’s relevance and usability, ultimately enhancing your site’s SEO performance and user experience.
Ideal Site Structure for Search Engines
By now, you should’ve gotten the hang of organizing your site to enhance user experience and the importance of site structure.
However, before diving in, I suggest you prioritize search intent above all. This goes beyond simply categorizing keywords as informational, transactional, commercial, or navigational. Dive deeper to understand the target audience and their true search purpose.
Get into the nitty gritty. Analyze the top three searches for your main keyword and questions in the People Also Ask (PAA) section. This allows you to align your website’s content and organization with what users are actually looking for
For your most important services, craft detailed landing pages. I believe it’s also important to create valuable articles for each of the services and use internal linking to enhance navigation.
The blog articles allow you to regularly add new content centered around different key phrases, which is highly beneficial for SEO purposes.
Final Thoughts
A well-structured website is key to keeping both visitors and search engines happy. By focusing on good SEO practices like updating old content, avoiding keyword overlap, and keeping things simple, you can make sure your site is easy to navigate and ranks well.
Regularly adding new content through your blog can also boost your SEO. Remember, a clear and organized site structure makes all the difference in creating a positive user experience.
FAQs
1. What is website structure and why is it important?
Website architecture is like the blueprint of your site, showing how your homepage, category pages, and individual content pages are arranged. It’s important because a well-structured site makes it easier for visitors to find what they’re looking for and helps Google understand and index your content better.
2. How does a good website structure improve SEO?
A good website structure improves SEO by providing a clear path for both users and search engines to follow. When your site is easy to navigate, visitors stay longer and explore more, which tells search engines your site is valuable.
3. What are some important practices for creating an SEO-friendly website structure?
To create an SEO-friendly structure or user-friendly website structure:
- Group related content together in categories.
- Use clear and descriptive URLs.
- Add internal links between related pages.
- Ensure your site is mobile-friendly and loads quickly.
- Regularly update outdated content and fix broken links.