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    What Is WebSite Structure

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    fhh
    A properly structured website is important for both users and search engines. There are different types of website structures like hierarchical, sequential, matrix, and database models. A good structure provides a smooth user experience, can earn sitelinks, improves crawling, and prevents content duplication. Key aspects of a well-structured site include organized navigation, categories, internal linking, readable URLs, and W3C validation. Strategizing the structure early and maintaining symmetry are recommended for SEO-friendly design.

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    What Is WebSite Structure

    Uploaded by

    fhh
    85 views6 pages
    A properly structured website is important for both users and search engines. There are different types of website structures like hierarchical, sequential, matrix, and database models. A good structure provides a smooth user experience, can earn sitelinks, improves crawling, and prevents content duplication. Key aspects of a well-structured site include organized navigation, categories, internal linking, readable URLs, and W3C validation. Strategizing the structure early and maintaining symmetry are recommended for SEO-friendly design.

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    What is WebSite Structure

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    A properly structured website is important for both users and search engines. There are different types of website structures like hierarchical, sequential, matrix, and database models. A good structure provides a smooth user experience, can earn sitelinks, improves crawling, and prevents content duplication. Key aspects of a well-structured site include organized navigation, categories, internal linking, readable URLs, and W3C validation. Strategizing the structure early and maintaining symmetry are recommended for SEO-friendly design.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    85 views6 pages

    What Is WebSite Structure

    Uploaded by

    fhh
    A properly structured website is important for both users and search engines. There are different types of website structures like hierarchical, sequential, matrix, and database models. A good structure provides a smooth user experience, can earn sitelinks, improves crawling, and prevents content duplication. Key aspects of a well-structured site include organized navigation, categories, internal linking, readable URLs, and W3C validation. Strategizing the structure early and maintaining symmetry are recommended for SEO-friendly design.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 6

    What is WebSite Structure & How to design

    an SEO-friendly Website structure?


    With today’s fast-paced lifestyles, nobody likes to wait for long or feel lost while
    searching for information online. Therefore, as a marketer, it is crucial to structure your
    website in an easy-to-navigate manner to retain the interest of your audience. And site
    structure is what we will talk about today.( Search engine optimization (SEO) is the
    practice of orienting your website to rank higher on a search engine results page (SERP) so that
    you receive more traffic. The aim is typically to rank on the first page of Google results for
    search terms that mean the most to your target audience.)

    What is Website Structure?

    Site structure or website architecture refers to how your website is designed or how
    various pages on your website are connected for excellent user experience. This is
    important not just from the user’s perspective but also for search engine optimization.
    What are the types of website structure?

    ▪ Hierarchical Model
    This is the most common and preferred type of website structure. This is also known as
    a tree structure, where there is a parent page with a broad set of information, and it is
    further categorized into child pages with detailed information.

    ▪ Sequential Model
    As the name says, this allows the user to browse in a sequential manner. Here, the user
    can only travel in a forward or backward direction.

    ▪ Matrix Model
    This was popularly used in the early years of the internet. It provided the user with many
    relevant links under various topic groups, allowing them to choose where they wanted to
    go next.

    ▪ Database Model
    This is a dynamic approach to website architecture, integrating a database with a
    search. With this website structure, users can create experiences based on their search
    query.

    What is the importance of Website structure?

    ▪ A smooth user experience


    If your website is appealing and informative and has hassle-free navigation, users will
    want to spend more time on it, increasing the dwell-time and decreasing the bounce
    time. This will, in turn, indicates to Google that your website is an excellent result to be
    displayed for a search query and can boost your rankings.

    ▪ Good site structure can get you sitelinks


    Sitelinks on a SERP show your website’s important pages. These are of a
    great SEO advantage and can improve clickthrough rate, better your brand’s reputation
    and help you rank better on SERPs. Google awards sitelinks to websites with excellent
    site structure. Currently, you cannot add a sitelink on your own.

    ▪ Improved Crawling
    A properly designed website structure with good internal linking will help not only users
    but also crawlers that crawl your website by letting them discover important pages.
    ▪ Prevents from competing with your website
    Sometimes, you may have different blog posts written around the same topic. If your
    site is designed correctly, it can help you avoid having competing webpages
    and keyword cannibalization.
    How to have a good website structure?
    Hierarchical structures based on parent and child pages are generally considered a
    good website structure. Some of its elements include:
    ▪ Homepage
    The homepage of your website can be referred to as a central place from where the
    whole website is navigated. It’s important for your homepage to include links to all
    important pages of your website and guide the users to information that they need.
    ▪ Navigation
    Navigation or the menu of your website helps visitors understand your website
    structure. Therefore, categorise all the pages systematically so that the users can easily
    identify the information they are looking for. The best way to create good navigation is
    by using short phrases and simple language for the content.
    ▪ Categories
    Categories and subcategories play a crucial role in creating an adequate website
    structure. Make sure to craft different categories for different types of content. Group
    similar content together and create a category and further add a sub-category if
    required. For instance, if you sell books, you can create categories for different genres
    of books.
    ▪ Individual Pages
    Individual pages and blogs must be organised properly on your website so that the
    desired audience can effortlessly find the content they are searching for. The finest way
    to structure information on individual pages is with the use of meta
    tags, breadcrumb trails, and contextual links.
    ▪ Breadcrumbs
    A breadcrumb trail helps add navigation to the posts and pages on your website. A
    breadcrumb trail consists of clickable links that provide your website structure to users
    and also help them view different posts present on the website. Breadcrumbs provide a
    great way to improve the user experience of your website.
    ▪ Tags
    Tags serve the purpose of grouping together similar content present on your website.
    Tags are quite similar to the categories present on your website. The only difference
    between categories and tags is that categories are further divisible into sub-categories.
    However, tags cannot be subdivided and work only by grouping together similar
    content.
    How to design an SEO-friendly website structure?
    ▪ Strategize before you start
    The best way to do things is to plan before executing them. Grab a paper and pen, and
    draw a rough sketch of how your website should look. You can list down various
    important pages, categories and product pages. This can help you get a better
    understanding of your website’s skeletal system. If you are starting a new website, it is
    good to consider implementing various SEO techniques at the designing stage itself.
    Choosing the right website model is important here. A flat site structure where all pages
    are just one click away from your home page can sound easy to implement. However,
    when asked about the flat site structure, this is how John Mueller responded:
    “In general, I’d be careful to avoid setting up a situation where normal website
    navigation doesn’t work. So, we should be able to crawl from one URL to another URL
    on your website just by the links on the page.”
    Here, he is saying that a flat website structure can cause crawl issues and difficulty in
    navigation for users. He further explained:

    ▪ Website Symmetry is important


    If you eliminate the colors, fonts, kernel, graphics and images from a website, a good
    website structure is what remains. And maintaining symmetry in the structure can be
    satisfying to the user. Keep your category count between 2 to 7 and try to add an equal
    number of sub-categories in each category. Symmetricity will prevent your website from
    looking uneven.

    ▪ URL structure
    The URL structure should follow the page hierarchy. If you already have a good website
    structure, this won’t be much of an issue. However, pay close attention to the ‘slug’. A
    slug refers to the tail end of the URL. Using a readable name in the slug instead of the
    ID number of the page helps crawlers and users to better read and understand the
    content of the page.
    ▪ Internal Linking
    Internal linking is a crucial SEO technique which helps you connect one webpage to
    another on your website. This enhances the user experience as important pages are
    accessible with fewer clicks. Implementing a good internal linking strategy can help with
    a good flow of link juice within the domain. Thus, your website can rank better on the
    SERP.

    ▪ W3C Validation
    The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) validation is a process to check the
    compliance of the HTML and XHTML documents of your website to well-formed
    markup. W3C validation ensures that the site works the same in all browsers.
    ▪ Use suitable JavaScript framework along with HTML and
    CSS
    When designing your website, using HTML and CSS are the safest methods. However,
    using JavaScript can make your site appealing to the users. You need to use a suitable
    JavaScript framework for your website. With the introduction of the Google Evergreen
    bot, the crawler can now render more than 1000 web platform features that it could not
    earlier, making SEO easier.

    Conclusion
    A website structure is a result of precise thinking and organization. It is a vital aspect of
    SEO and should be done before the creation of your website. However, if your website
    is live, you can always rework on the design and improve its structural organization for
    SEO. It can help both the users and crawlers with easy navigation. So, do not hesitate
    to invest your time and resources to create an SEO-friendly website.
    Consider the above suggestions to structure your site and lets us know how it worked
    for you.

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