{"id":1666,"date":"2021-02-04T16:17:10","date_gmt":"2021-02-04T16:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lvboard.infostore.in.ua\/?p=1666"},"modified":"2021-02-04T16:17:10","modified_gmt":"2021-02-04T16:17:10","slug":"website-structure-how-to-build-your-seo-foundation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lvboard.infostore.in.ua\/?p=1666","title":{"rendered":"Website Structure: How to Build Your SEO Foundation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Website structure is how your site is organized and webpages interlinked. Having a logical site structure helps visitors and search engines<\/a> easily find and navigate content while improving conversions and supporting your SEO efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

A solid website structure is a must-have when you\u2019re about to launch a new website or redesign the current one. The bigger your website is, the more critical it becomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this article, you\u2019ll learn how to plan and create a great site structure in these five steps:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Prepare to map everything visually<\/a><\/li>
  2. Check how your competitors\u2019 websites are structured<\/a><\/li>
  3. Create a logical plan based on your existing pages<\/a><\/li>
  4. Complete your website structure using keyword research data<\/a><\/li>
  5. Map out site navigation components<\/a><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    But first, let\u2019s dive into why you should care about building a solid website structure in the first place.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Why website structure matters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    We all know how intertwined marketing activities across channels are. It\u2019s no different with website structure; it is as much an SEO as a UX thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    User experience (UX)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Imagine that you\u2019re looking to buy a cast-iron skillet. You head to a cookware website, click the \u2018pots and pans\u2019 category, then choose \u2018cast-iron\u2019 as the material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"1-pots-and-pans.jpg\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Whichever store you visit, the process is roughly the same because this structure leads to a great user experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If you were required to click on tons of pages to find what you\u2019re looking for, you\u2019d probably leave and go elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Internal linking<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Using intuitive navigation and internal linking<\/a> structure is not only beneficial for users but also SEO. That\u2019s because it allows PageRank to flow around your site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    PageRank (PR)<\/a> represents the authority of a webpage based on its internal and external backlinks. Created in the early days of Google, it\u2019s the foundation of the ranking algorithm and is still used as a ranking signal<\/a> today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    By linking together relevant pages, you influence how PR flows around your website, meaning that pages with more internal links are likely to rank better. Don\u2019t try to game this\u2014only link to other pages when it\u2019s valuable for visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Sitelinks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Google will sometimes show your highly-visible pages in the SERP<\/a>. This SERP feature is known as sitelinks<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"2-ahrefs-sitelinks.png\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    You don\u2019t have control over what Google decides to show here, but they are generally some of the more important pages and categories on your website. And this importance is based on your site structure and internal links.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Naturally, pages that are linked from your menu and other main navigation elements tend to show up in sitelinks the most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Recommended reading:<\/strong> What Are Sitelinks? How to Influence Them<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Crawl efficiency<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    If a page has few valuable pages linking to it, you can\u2019t expect people or search engine crawlers to make their way there very often. Such pages are considered unimportant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    You likely don\u2019t have to worry about optimizing crawl efficiency and budget (resources Googlebot decides to allocate to your website). It\u2019s a relevant task for huge websites only, so you\u2019ll generally be okay with a solid site structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Content planning and wireframing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Your website structure can tell you when and where you should create some new pages or sections. And given that it\u2019s closely tied to keyword research<\/a>, some of your existing pages might be better off targeting different keywords based on their higher traffic potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But that\u2019s not all. It\u2019s also useful for design teams, especially in the early process of (re)designing a website where wireframes come in handy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A wireframe is a simplified design of a page that lays out its structure without adding any visuals or content. It considers user needs and journeys throughout the website, which is inevitably tied to the website structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    For example, with website structure in hand, a designer knows that a particular page is a top-level category and can adjust the prototype for two deeper levels in the website hierarchy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Scaling up your website<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    When you create new pages, you place them into the most relevant parts of your website. But what seems relevant now might change in the future as you add more content. You might need to restructure some parts of your website and implement redirects<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A thoroughly planned website architecture makes your website future-proof. You\u2019ll always know where to place your content based on the research that\u2019s behind it.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    How to create a solid website structure<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    The time investment and complexity of creating a website structure depends on two things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. How big your website is and will be<\/li>
    2. Whether you have keyword research ready or not<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      If you have keyword research ready and your site is relatively small, creating a website structure can be done in under an hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      So, what does it take? Let\u2019s dive into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      1. Prepare to map everything visually<\/a><\/li>
      2. Check how your competitors\u2019 websites are structured<\/a><\/li>
      3. Create a logical plan based on your existing pages<\/a><\/li>
      4. Complete your website structure using keyword research data<\/a><\/li>
      5. Map out site navigation components<\/a><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

        1. Prepare to map everything visually<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

        Website structure is all about having a visual foundation you can share with the team. Here\u2019s a bit from my quick draft of our website structure:https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/ahrefs_ia_example.mp4?ap=0&autoplay=0&autoStart=false&player_autoStart=false<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        We have a relatively small website, but I had to zoom out and slide horizontally to show you the structure. I\u2019ve seen website structures that spanned across huge conference tables when printed. Be ready for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        All you need to do for now is to choose a mind map software that you\u2019ll use to create the structure. I used Xmind<\/a> to create the draft above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        2. Check how your competitors\u2019 websites are structured<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

        Planning your website structure from scratch can be quite complicated, depending on its size. So first, take inspiration from your top-performing competitors as their sites are probably structured in a close-to-ideal way. Using a structure similar to your competitors also creates a sense of familiarity for your visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        To get started, plug in your competitor\u2019s website into Ahrefs\u2019 Site Explorer<\/a>. Check how each section of their website contributes to their overall organic traffic. Do this primarily for their subfolders:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \"3-top-subfolders.jpg\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

        Take inspiration from the structure of their best-performing sections. Take their URLs and repeat the process by looking into their deeper structures with the Top subfolders<\/strong> report. Just make sure that you have set the \u201cprefix\u201d option in the address bar to consider your selected top-level page as the seed page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \"4-top-subfolders-subsection.jpg\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

        If you\u2019re in ecommerce, also check how giants like Amazon approach this. You\u2019ll find all sorts of categories there. They\u2019ve already done the job well, so use that to your advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \"5-amazon-navigation.png\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

        3. Create a logical plan based on your existing pages<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

        The most important thing to keep in mind when it comes to visualizing your website is to create your structure flat, not deep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \"6-flat-vs-deep-structure.png\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

        Having a flat website structure ensures that any two pages on your website are just a few clicks away from each other. That\u2019s important for both your users and search engine crawlers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        If you\u2019re in the process of redesigning your current website, you can check whether you already have site structure depth problems. Use the Site Audit tool<\/a> (available for free in Ahrefs Webmaster Tools<\/a>) to crawl your website, then go to Structure explorer and open the Depth report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \"7-site-audit-structure-explorer.png\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

        This report shows the distribution of URLs based on how far they are from your seed page (usually homepage). First, segment the report to only show valid 200 status code HTML pages by applying the following segment:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \"8-segment-filter.png\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

        This will weed out all your images, JavaScript files, and other kinds of URLs that you don\u2019t need to audit here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \"9-filtered-structure-explorer.png\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

        Depending on your website\u2019s complexity, you want to see the number rising until three or four clicks away from the seed page and then rapidly declining. Generally speaking, you shouldn\u2019t have many or any pages at all further than six clicks away. That would result in fewer visits from both visitors and search engines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        It\u2019s also worth checking whether you have any orphan pages on your website. Orphan pages are those that have no internal backlinks, making them unreachable to anyone browsing the website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        You can also check for these in the Site Audit tool<\/a>. Just make sure to add sitemaps and backlinks to the URL sources in the project settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \"10-site-audit-url-sources.png\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

        After the website is crawled, open Page explorer<\/strong> and apply the following filter on top of the previously used segment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \"11-page-explorer.png\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

        If you find any valuable pages there, you should link to them from your other pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Once you identify these issues, it\u2019s time to start visualizing the structure. Draft it based on the information we have so far:<\/p>\n\n\n\n