Your website’s search engine ranking depends a lot on its structure. You must be knowing that every website has a structure – be it a streamlined or disorganized collection of pages.
When you focus on building the perfect site structure, it ranks high on SERPs.
Read on to learn in detail about the site structure that works for SEO.
Why Site Structure is Crucial to Boost SEO?
The better your site structure, the better the user experience (UX). So, you need to remove the first, images, colors, graphics, kerning, and white space to build an excellent site framework.
Focus on the following activities to drive traffic to your website:
- SEO – to build a massive online presence
- Content marketing – to draft enriching content that attracts traffic, links, and shares
- Paid media – to apply productive paid strategies with clear ROI
Here are the key reasons why site structure is necessary to improve SEO:
Cognitive Equilibrium
The human mind always prefers cognitive equilibrium. Your website should be such that they would be able to link pieces logically and locate the expected things easily.
With a logical and robust site structure, you satisfy your users cognitively. If your website appeals to users, it also appeals to search engines. Google algorithm uses searcher information to rank your website on SERPs.
Your website will not rank high in SERPs if it has low CTRs and dwells time. When users find a website with excellent structure, they do not tend to bounce and stay longer. A perfect site structure decreases bounce rates and increases dwell time which boosts your search engine ranking.
Sitelinks
A nice structure gives site links to your website. Sitelinks are a listing format in the SERPs that displays your site’s main page with numerous internal links indented below.
Sitelinks always benefit your SEO as they boost your website navigability, direct users to the most related information, enhance brand image, build trust, attract CTRs and reduce the conversion funnel.
Google’s algorithm automatically prefers websites with website links depending on their site structure.
With a poor site structure, your website will never acquire site links. When there are no site links, your website doesn’t drive target customers, boost CTR and conversions.
Crawling
Googlebot, a web crawler, crawls your website structure to index content for returning it in search results. A good website structure makes it easy for crawlers to access and index the content.
Crawlers never automatically find everything on your website. Google may not be able to discover some pages or URLs by normal crawling process which makes it necessary for your website to have a sitemap. So, crawlers can easily crawl, index, and return to your web pages if they have a strong structure.
You can never make it big in SEO with a proper site structure. It strengthens your SEO base that gives your website visibility in massive organic search.
Guide to Creating a Website Structure That Can Boost Your SEO
Here are the steps to build the perfect site structure:
1. Set up a hierarchy before building your website
Before starting to build your website from scratch, you should plan your site structure that delivers exceptional SEO results. Do the planning on a spreadsheet program(Google Sheets and Excel), whiteboard, and word processors.
A hierarchy is a simple way to organize your details. As it also acts as your URL structure and navigation, everything crucial starts here.
Here are the things to keep in mind when creating a hierarchy:
Make it logical
Build a simple and logical hierarchy to make things easier for users and crawlers. Don’t add complications to your hierarchy. Every category should be distinct and unique. It should anyhow relate to the main category below which it is located.
Add a few categories
Ensure the total number of main categories is between 2 to 7. You should not add too many categories unless you are a big brand. If you add over 7 categories, you may need to rethink your business.
Balance the total number of subcategories in every category. Try to keep the number of subcategories almost equal under each category.
For instance, if the main category has 15 subcategories and another has only 5 categories, it gives an unbalanced look.
2. Build a URL framework that follows the navigation hierarchy
URL structure is a key element in creating a robust site framework. If your hierarchy is logical, you can easily build a proper URL structure.
Your website URLs should have real words and perfect keyword density.
3. Create navigation in CSS and HTML
Use simple coding to create your site navigation. CSS and HTML coding are the safest coding options.
The coding in AJAX, Flash, and JavaScript restrict the crawler’s ability to cover your site’s navigation and hierarchy.
4. Use a little deep navigation structure
The website navigation structure follows your site hierarchy.
Thus, ensure the web pages, mainly important pages are not hidden deep within your website. Shallow sites perform better both from crawlers’ and users’ perspectives.
5. Build a header that lists your key navigation pages
Make sure your top header lists out your key pages. You can use a simple top navigation footer with minimum subcategories as it meets every user’s needs.
Don’t add any other menu elements besides your main categories as that will distract website visitors. When you have designed a parallax website, use a persistent header menu that displays via the scrolling stage.
Dropdown menus with CSS effects or disappearing menus offer an excellent user experience but don’t boost SEO. It is advisable not to use an image-focussed navigational framework. Text links with perfect anchors strengthen your SEO.
Do you have a footer with menu links? Replicate the main links of your top navigation menu in your footer navigation menu. If you adjust the order of links or include extra category listings, it complicates the UX.
6. Create an all-inclusive internal linking framework
Internal linking adds value to the logical site hierarchy. It enables users to navigate your website, create an information hierarchy of the other website, and spread link juice(ranking power) across it. Each of these benefits helps you to build a perfectly integrated site structure.
Don’t complicate internal linking. Every page on your website needs to have some links to/from another page on your website. The navigation should help you do internal linking to the main categories and subcategories. Just ensure your leaf-level pages have internal linking.
If you do proper internal linking, it tells search engines which pages are crucial and how to reach there. When you have more internal linking across all your web pages, you perform better in SEO.
Bottomline
Site structure is an essential thing for SEO.
Site structure is an essential thing for SEO. To build it effectively, you need to think carefully and design accordingly. Build a robust site structure before you create your website.
If you are redesigning your website, you can rework the design and rearrange certain navigational elements to boost structural SEO.
When optimizing your website for search engines, keep in mind the things mentioned above. As site structure is one of the most effective optimization techniques, you should never avoid it.
If you have an excellent site structure, you can make it big in SEO.
So what are you waiting for? Build the perfect site structure and climb up the ladder of search engine ranks rapidly.