For your website to do well online, you must incorporate various strategies in your content and architecture. The key is to organize your website logically so that users can find what they’re searching for. That’s why website architecture is related to user experience.
Aside from that, proper website structure facilitates easy browsing for both crawlers and users, boosting the page’s SEO ranking. If you’re wondering how to plan website structure, this article will give you important insights for you to use.
What Is Website Architecture?
When it comes to designing a website, web developers pay attention to user flow and website structure. Website structure refers to the layout and how the different pages are interconnected. It’s how the data in your website are presented and organized.
Web developers want a website that flows smoothly from one page to another. Your entire website structure is much like the design of a building—it gives an overall view of how your pages and posts are connected.
Why Is Website Architecture Important?
As mentioned, website architecture is directly related to user experience and search engine rankings. A well-designed website with relevant content and properly-placed headings and meta tags will get more hits in search engines and appear higher on the SERPs. In layman’s terms, it’s essential to have the main page, the homepage, a few essential pages. such as Contact Us, About Us, and FAQ.
Another critical aspect of a well-structured site structure is its layout and how each page relates to the main pages. This is where navigation comes in. When the website has straightforward and user-friendly navigation, visitors will tend to stay longer on the website.
How Do You Improve Website Structure?
Since website structure is essential, you should find ways on how you can improve it. Here are some of the ways you can create a better website structure to increase your sales:
Optimize Your Menu
A website menu is a series of links that navigate from one page to another of a website. There are many types of website menus, depending upon the theme and content of the site.
An optimized website menu includes links to the most important content on your site. It should lead to your main products or services, or other essential parts where you provide your visitors important information, like the About Us and Contact Us pages. Another important tip is to place crucial links in the menu on the left-hand side because most people read from left to right.
You can also use an adaptive website menu structure. It’s a menu structure wherein the menu changes as the user navigates the website. The changes are based on specific categories you place on your site. It’s also based on your visitor’s interest, so you can prioritize the links they’re more likely to click.
The advantage of using an adaptive menu is that it increases engagement to your visitors, and your site will feel more customized to their needs. Aside from that, the menu keeps the overall design of the site consistent with its content.
Place Attention To The Links In Your Footer
The website footer is another critical location in your site as it acts as a final call-to-action that’s present across the different pages of your site. Many website owners think that very few people interact with the footer links. However, there are also important reasons why you should pay attention to this.
For one, your footer can contain more links that can’t be included in your main menu. In your footer, you can place links to your blog, partner sites, contact information, and the map of your store location. Aside from that, you can also add the same connections that you included in your main menu. You need to make sure that all the links contained in the footer are helpful for your visitors.
Ensure Good Link Between Your Articles
A good website structure has proper user flow, and it’s apparent when there’s a good link between your content. This can be done through article clustering. You start by grouping pieces of content on the same topic or keywords together.
After grouping your content and pages, you need to create links between them. At the beginning of the article, you can insert a link that’s relevant to the page’s theme. After that, you can add a link in the body of the article and place a link that’s relevant to the article’s topic. Lastly, add a link at the end of the article that acts like a call-to-action where visitors will be directed to pages where they can purchase your products or avail of your services.
It’s important to keep the number of links on the page to a reasonable count. Too many links on a page or article aren’t good for your website ranking. Aside from that, too many links may distract your visitors, and they may get confused.
Keep Your URLs Simple
After arranging the content on your site, you should ensure that your URLs are readable and user-friendly. Most content management systems create a user-friendly URL based on your page title or the topics you defined in your categories. The URL will then look like this: website.com/maintopic/subtopic/page-title.
You can also structure your URLs like website.com/maintopic or website.com/longtail-keyword once you connect them to the parent pages.
Get Inspiration From Other Top Ranking Sites
Chances are your target visitors are already familiar with the website architecture of other top-ranking sites related to your industry. There’s nothing wrong with getting inspiration and ideas from these sites to see what works for them.
For example, if you’re going to run an e-commerce website, what do the top eCommerce websites have, and how do they provide proper flow and structure for their visitors. It will become more similar and familiar to your target audience when you get inspiration from popular sites. Aside from that, your visitors will find your site easier to navigate.
Final Thoughts
Website architecture is the overall architectural arrangement of your web pages. The architecture of a website is significant because it defines how accessible your site is to users. It determines how search engines will rank your site. This arrangement is also reflected through internal linking and optimize webpage navigation.
Good navigation is one of the essential items for your website design. When you have optimized navigation, your visitors will easily find what they’re looking for. It’s also essential to have relevant links on your website so your visitors will be directed to other related content. Lastly, it’s important to find inspiration and follow the flow used by top-ranking websites so you can also cater to the needs and preferences of your visitors.