What Is Website Structure?
How information is presented on a website, the design, and how pages are interconnected are known as website structure.
The site structure is one of the main reasons why people leave a website. 73.1% of those surveyed said that they had left a website because of its poor design, and 34.6% cited content structure as the primary reason for doing so.
If a website does not make a good impression on visitors, they will likely leave and go to another website.
There are several elements that make a website effective, such as how the content is organized (taxonomies), how the pages are linked together (internal links), providing a way to track where the user is on the site (breadcrumbs), easy navigation, and using code that helps search engines understand your site better (schema).
Why Is Your Website Structure Important?
Your website structure is important for several reasons. Most importantly, it affects your site’s usability, search engine optimization, and maintainability.
First, a logical and well-planned structure is ideal for User Experience (UX) . 88% of people who have a bad experience with a website are less likely to return to it. Your website audience should have a seamless experience without frustration.
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is perhaps as important as the first point. More than a quarter of SEO experts believe that structured data will become an important factor in SEO, and over a third believe that Google’s Core Web Vitals update will be a key part of an effective SEO strategy in the future.
It will be easier for your content to be indexed if your website is well-laid-out, easy for search engines to crawl, and mapped properly.
Lastly, an intentional structure helps prevent keyword cannibalization . This means that content that covers similar topics will be distinguished and organized from each other, giving users and search engine bots a clear idea of the purpose of each piece.
Top-Down Vs. Bottom-Up Website Structures
There are two types of website structures: top-down or bottom-up.
There are advantages and disadvantages to each type of structure, depending on what goals you are trying to achieve.
The main problem with top-down structures is that everything needs to be planned out in advance. It’s not possible to change the way the website is set up once it has been established.
This logical structure will make it easier for users and search engine crawlers to navigate your pages.
Its main strength is that it can be built over time and let you continue making adjustments. Even though these structures might make the experience more difficult for users and search engines, they are better for a website owner.
The 4 Types of Website Structure
There are four types of website structures that are commonly used today. Each type has its own advantages and is more appropriate for different uses.
1. Hierarchical
The most popular website structure is a hierarchical structure, which is sometimes called a tree structure. The website is designed so that users can navigate from general category pages to more specific pages.
This can be seen with e-commerce websites that have large product categories that lead into smaller categories and then individual product pages.
Hierarchical structures are best for websites with large data like e-commerce. You would start by creating informational pages and categorizing them according to what would be most important to your visitors. The best place to focus your optimization efforts is on the pages that get the most traffic.
After determining what your site’s main categories are, you can figure out where the rest of your pages fit in among those categories. It is important to consider both users and search engine crawlers when structuring your website, as it will be difficult to change later on.
2. Sequential
A linear website structure is one that follows a simple page-to-page path. When creating a campaign with multiple landing pages, it is more common to use simple websites.
This approach would make sense if you are a startup or a small business because you would only have a few essential pages that you would want to display. This would even make sense for large website checkout experiences like Gymshark or KKW Beauty have done:
This structure is best used when you want your content to be in chronological order. For example, an online course or sales funnel. The most straightforward way to ensure that users follow the steps you want them to is to have a sequential website structure.
3. Database
A database-driven website structure is very complex, using a bottom-up approach.
In order to create a searchable database for users to access, this approach requires special attention to tagging and metadata. More and more sites are employing search tools to help increase conversion rates.
Approximately 30% of people who come to a website will use the site’s search function at some point. A previous study from eConsultancy found that visitors who are able to find what they are looking for on a website using site search are almost twice as likely to convert.
An example of a database structure is Medium :
One of the main benefits of a database is that it can be customized to your specific needs. Since it is bottom-up, it can be built over time, so there is no need to worry about making it perfect right away. As your website grows, the database will become larger and previous database files will become part of their own dataset under the new structure.
If you want to use a database structure, you will need to find someone on your team who knows a lot about programming. It’s important to ensure that nothing is lost in translation.
The level of data on your website should be considered before using this structure. If you find a programmer who is a good match for your needs, ask for help in deciding what categories to use for your website.
4. Matrix
One of the oldest types of internet structures is a matrix structure. This text is saying that the best way to navigate the complexities and non-traditional aspects of the text is by using search and internal links.
An example of a matrix structure is Wikipedia . The fact that 80% of traffic comes from organic searches suggests that this is an effective strategy. There are endless possibilities for the next steps a user can take, so this seems to be a good way to keep users engaged.
A matrix structure is most commonly used in a wiki-style approach. The tool helps you to easily compare and contrast data sets by providing a word cloud-like visualization. There’s no need to stress over the parent-child relationship dynamic when it comes to website pages or navigation. The next step in the sequence for each user would be different.
This structure is best for websites with a narrow focus, as too much information might be overwhelming for users. This would be a good training database for company systems or fan-based websites for popular TV shows.
Ways Website Structure Can Affect SEO
1. Site Crawlability
The crawlability of a website is one of the most important aspects of its structure.
Crawlability is the search engine’s ability to access the content of your website. This allows the engine to determine what your site is about and how it should be indexed.
To understand the website, you need to navigate through the subpages and look at the different topics.
A webpage that can be navigated from one page to another within the website is considered to be crawlable.
2. URL Structure
The URL structure of a website is one of the essential factors affecting SEO.
An effective site hierarchy is built from URLs, which pass equity through your domain to the desired destinations of users.
The most effective URL structures are those that are easy for both users and search engines to read, and contain target queries that make them content-rich.
An effective website structure means that the logic of the site is replicated across the whole site. This includes submitting an XML sitemap to search engines, which will help rank the most important URLs.
URLs should be kept simple, without too many parameters.
3. HTTP, HTTPs, HTTP2
If you want your website to be secure and rank high on Google, you should use HTTPS.
This is why HTTPS is used by more than 50% of websites worldwide.
There are multiple benefits to switching to HTTPS, including better rankings.
- Better user experience.
- Protection of your users’ information.
- AMP implementation – only viable with HTTPS.
- PPC campaign effectiveness.
- Improved data in Google Analytics.
As of November 2020, Google will start crawling some sites over HTTP/2 instead of HTTP/1.1.
4. Internal Linking
Users should be able to navigate from one page to another without any difficulties.
If you have a lot of pages on your website, it can be tricky to make them all easy to get to using only navigation.
You should be able to find any given page on a website with three clicks or less, according to usability experts. However, use this advice as a guideline instead of a rule.
Internal linking helps users and search engines discover pages, and helps provide a flow between content and pages.
If a page is not linked to any other pages, it is more difficult for search engines to find and crawl.
5. Key Content & Keywords
You should do content and keyword research when you start building your website so that it is optimize
This means that your understanding of your target audience, search behavior, and competitive topics should be reflected in your website’s structure and layout.
The best websites make sure their most important content is easy to find and of excellent quality.
6. Duplicate Content
Content that appears more than once on the internet is seen as spam by Google, which can negatively impact your SEO.
In order to rank highly on a search engine results page, your website must contain high-quality and unique content.
Google Search Console is a helpful tool for identifying and removing duplicate content from your website.
Using duplicate content on LinkedIn and Medium can be risky and should be done with care.
Don’t post the same content on your website as well as someone else’s.
7. Navigation & User Experience
Today’s websites are held to much stricter usability standards than in the early days of the Internet.
If someone finds a website that is poorly made, they will not want to continue using it.
No one wants to waste their time on a site where they can’t figure out what to do.
If a visitor can’t find the information they want on your website, they will go to a competitor’s website to find it.
And bad user experience hurts SEO.
Google interprets how searchers interact with a website for future search results.
8. Core Web Vitals & User Experience
Google’s page experience update includes Core Web Vitals, which could affect your site’s ranking if you don’t optimize your images.
Website builders, designers, and SEO pros should work together to shift emphasis on CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) and measure content and visual content load jumps.
If Core Web Vitals continue on their current trajectory, they could become one of the ranking factors in 2021. Very few sites meet the benchmark standards set by Core Web Vitals, with less than 15% of sites being up to par.
Google has announced an upcoming update that will impact websites’ search rankings. Website owners and SEO professionals are advised to take action in advance to prepare for this change.
9. Mobile
Designing your website to be mobile-friendly is now an essential part of the website-building process.
The amount of work necessary for developing a website varies depending on the amount of resources (such as developers and IT experts) available, as well as the type of website being created (e.g. an online store would require more work than a simple information site).
Google suggests that if you built your website without considering mobile users, it will likely cost time and money to make your website mobile-friendly.
This is especially true for sites built with flash or that use old ecommerce platforms.
10. Speed & Performance
If your website is not designed for a fast user experience, it will negatively affect your SEO and bottom-line results.
Pages that load slowly or are unresponsive damage the work of developers, content creators, and SEO professionals.
A one-second delay in loading a page can have a significant impact on the number of people who view that page and the amount of traffic it receives. Additionally, it can lead to a drop in conversions, leaving users feeling frustrated.
