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.
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
-
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.
-
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.
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.
-
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.
-
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.
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.