In the digital age, smart marketers are taking advantage of website structure since they understand that it is the backbone of every search engine ranking. It not only influences user experience but also plays a crucial role in search engine optimization (SEO).
Conducting a thorough website structure analysis is essential for ensuring that your website is user-friendly, easy to navigate, and optimized for search engines.
However, if a website structure is so important to a website, then a website audit and optimization techniques may go hand in hand for better results. In this guide, we'll walk you through the step-by-step process of conducting a website structure analysis to enhance your site's performance.
But first, let’s learn some basics
What is website structure?
The website structure also called website architecture is the BRIDGE that connects all pages of your website. The linkage and interconnection of your website pages allow search engine robots to crawl it. Taking your time to build a website structure that allows search robots to crawl and recrawl your website makes it easier to get them indexed to rank in SERPs.
Furthermore, we can say that the internal linking of your website can be
Linear (mostly called sequential structure)
Pages are connected linearly to accommodate a structure located after one another. The linear structure is best for small websites with one purpose, product, and brand focusing on a subscription or service. The simplicity of this structure makes it easier for users to navigate a website to find and perform an action promptly.
Network (mostly called weblink structure)
The network structure has all its pages interconnected. You can get to any page you choose on the website from anywhere. This website structure is a great fit for websites with a small number of pages. However, this website structure is not commonly integrated into big brands because of its difficulty in navigation and management.
Hierarchical (mostly called tree-like structure)
In the hierarchical structure, all pages of the websites are linked to the home page, making it easier for the website to have sectional hierarchies. Many website owners integrate the hierarchical structure because of its unique ability to accommodate a large number of pages.
The hierarchical structure can be a star (sometimes called hub and spoke) and a multi-tiered. Additionally, its multi-tiered nature allows for a thematic and silo website grouping of pages to enhance site navigation for content and queries.
Furthermore, e-commerce sites, freelance or hiring sites, and telecommuting sites can gladly integrate hierarchical website structures without stress. Having mentioned the various types of website structures, it’s important to know why the correct website structure impacts your SEO ranking.
Why the Correct Website Structure Impacts Your SEO Ranking
An SEO-friendly website structure greatly impacts your SEO ranking in several ways. Amazing right? But to build an SEO-friendly website structure that will naturally attract search engine robots to crawl and index your website to increase your ranking is challenging. The following are pointers that can influence the structure of your website.
Sitelinks Acquisition
A comprehensive website structure will allow Google to showcase site links of your website below on SERPs. This approach provides an unfair advantage over others ultimately increasing your CTR (click-through rate). These additional links contribute greatly to your SEO optimization approach and techniques.
Faster Page Crawling & Indexing
When it comes to page crawling and indexing, a well-structured website will undergo faster page crawling and indexing than a website without proper architecture. Easy to navigate website attracts users to your website. In the same way, a transparent website structure attracts crawling robots for quicker crawling and faster indexing of your pages.
Cannibalization Is Avoided
A logical website structure prevents its pages from competing with each other. A good website structure provides room for each page to thrive without competing internally. When cannibalization occurs, it’s good to carry out a timely website audit to stop further competition.
Increase Site Conversion Rate
When a site receives visitors more often through SERPs, there’s a great probability of an increased conversion rate. This is where usability comes into play, the more visitors your site gets, the higher the chance of conversion.
User Experience Prioritized
Your website user experience is perceived by how easily the user uses and finds content on your site. Google uses time on site and bounce rate to prioritize your website for SEO optimization. A good website structure adds value to your website's ranking on search engines.
Links Are Equally Distributed
A good website structure contributes to equal link distribution across your website. Apart from equal distribution of links, content can also undergo an equal distribution to affect your site ranking in SERPs.
Now that we have successfully exhausted the basics about website structure, you can boldly hit your chest about website structure's meaning and its types and why having the correct website structure impacts your website SEO ranking.
Key Elements of a Website Structure Analysis
Some key elements of website structure that enhance and facilitate search engine crawling and indexing are
- Sitemap
- Internal links
- URL Structure
- Breadcrumb
- Category and
- Navigation
These elements are basic and form the foundation of any website structure. Next, let’s look at how to conduct a website structure analysis.
How to Conduct a Website Structure Analysis
Conducting a website structure analysis takes time and effort but with the right tools available, dominating is inevitable. The following are steps to do a simple website structure analysis.
That said, the importance of goal setting shouldn’t be overemphasized here. You should have a clear picture of what you want with your website. Questions like
Am I looking to increase my website traffic?
Do I want to improve my website user experience and engagement?
Do I want to enhance my website's SEO ranking?
Answering these questions will propel you toward achieving your set goals and help you focus on areas needing improvement. That being said, let’s take an extensive look at how to conduct a website structure analysis.
Step 1: Conduct a data check for your website
The first thing to do is to conduct and collect data about your website using various tools and techniques. You can use a free tool for that “Google Analytics” which provides valuable insights into user behavior, traffic sources, and site performance. Don’t limit yourself to only conducting the data checking for your website, look at your competitors and compare data. Add whatever changes you notice that are not on your website.
Moreso, you can also use tools like Screaming Frog and SEMrush that help you identify technical issues, analyze backlinks, and assess keyword rankings. Additionally, conduct a manual review of your site's navigation, content organization, and overall user experience. Do not limit your checks to the tools, use intuition and follow best practices for a perfect website structure analysis.
Step 2: Evaluate Site Structure to Align With Your Goal
After conducting a data check for your website and that of your competitor, the next thing is to assess your website's structure and ensure it is logical, intuitive, and organized. Start by examining the navigation menu and submenus to determine if they accurately represent your content hierarchy.
The need to have your page menu rightly positioned cannot be overemphasized. Also, the content on the menu should help users navigate the website without hassle. For instance, sites that need login to access your backend, “Login”, “Register”, and others should be places where site users can see them easily.
Furthermore, evaluate the URL structure to ensure it is clean, descriptive, and SEO-friendly. Pay attention to the internal linking structure to facilitate navigation and distribute link equity effectively.
Step 3: Analyze the Page Performance & Categorize Them
After you have successfully evaluated the website structure and have seen that it aligns with your goal and objective; the next is to analyze the page performance and categorize it. Evaluate the performance of individual pages to identify areas for improvement. If a page gets huge traffic through SERPs, it’s a pointer to model what works for that page and use it to improve your site performance. SEO is never dead, what works for one page can also work for another with a similar approach.
Review page load times to ensure optimal speed and performance. Assess bounce rates, time on page, and conversion rates to gauge user engagement and satisfaction. Analyze content relevance, quality, and optimization to enhance SEO and user experience. A few recommendations that help you categorize your pages are as follows:
- You must avoid page duplication to ensure your website URLs are concurrent
- Be clear with your page category - don’t confuse your readers about the respective pages of your site.
- Introduce a filtering option to help users navigate your website effectively.
- Provide room for scalability - options to add more categories as the industry evolves is a great way to optimize your page category.
Step 4: Conduct Keyword Research & Categorize Them
Keyword research is essential for optimizing your website's structure and content for search engines. Take your time to identify relevant keywords and phrases related to your industry, products, and services. A thorough keyword research will save you the time and effort of doing a trial here and there.
Use keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to discover high-volume keywords with low competition. If you have a multilingual website, do well to conduct separate keyword research for each and categorize them accordingly. Ensure you exclude all irrelevant keywords that may not move the needle to improve your site structure for traffic.
Finally incorporate these keywords strategically into your site's structure, URLs, headings, and content to improve organic search visibility.
Step 5: Optimize Relevant Pages for Mobile
Once you have conducted keyword research and categorized them, next optimize for mobile. With the increasing use of mobile devices, optimizing your website for mobile users is imperative. The menu is the most important aspect as regards mobile navigation. The first place a user navigates when they get to your website is the menu, so you must do well to position it either at the top center, left, or right corner of the page.
Furthermore, ensure your site is mobile-responsive, with a responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes and devices. Test your site's mobile-friendliness using Google's Mobile-Friendly Test and address any issues identified. Also worthy of doing is optimizing page load times, simplifying navigation, and prioritizing essential content for mobile users.
Step 6: Improve on Page Internal Linking
You cannot achieve a well-organized website structure without internally linking your website pages, content, and category. Undoubtedly, internal linking is crucial for guiding users through your website and distributing link equity effectively.
You must ensure to establish a robust connection between link building strategies that can spread link juice to all relevant pages on your site. Review your site's internal linking structure to ensure it is logical, relevant, and optimized. Also, identify opportunities to add internal links between related pages and content to improve navigation and SEO.
Additionally, use descriptive anchor text and consider implementing breadcrumb navigation to enhance user experience and search engine visibility. To achieve a topnotch link building strategy, you can follow any of these:
- A page with more traffic could also have the most links pointing to it
- Get rid of dead pages that contribute no value to your website
- Categorizing your URLs manually could help you determine what works best for you
Step 7: Maintain & Fix All URLs And Technical Issues
Your website content and URLs should be top-notch. Engage a clear hierarchical URL approach for your website. This would allow you to create a good wireframe that’s outstanding.
Some recommendations that help to make your URLs topnotch and clean are:
- Ensure your URLs have below 12 words count.
- Use easy-to-remember words as URLs, this will not help your website users but help to locate them when the need arises.
- Don’t forget to change your permalinks to slash (/) or hyphens (-). Do not use underscore(_)
- If your site is multilingual, ensure to add relevant language indicators to the URL and hreflang attribute.
Furthermore, address any technical issues found on your website dashboard. Prompt responses usually avert technical issues that contribute to your website's performance and search engine rankings. Additionally, conduct a technical and website audit to identify issues such as broken links, duplicate content, crawl errors, parsing, and server issues.
Use tools like Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, and website crawlers to identify and fix technical issues promptly. Next, we move to monitor and iterate the process.
Step 8: Monitor and Iterate
Website structure analysis is an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring and iteration. Regularly monitor your site's performance, user behavior, and search engine rankings using analytics tools and reports.
Keep abreast of industry trends, algorithm updates, and best practices to ensure your website remains optimized for success. Iterate on your analysis findings, implement improvements, and test new strategies to continuously enhance your site's performance and user experience.
Finally, don’t forget to test new waters. The deeper the oceans, the more fish you’ll catch, like website structure analysis. Iterating a strategy for a long time can provide a handful of information for success.
The Way Forward
Conducting a website structure analysis is essential for optimizing your site's performance, user experience, and search engine visibility. By following the steps outlined above, you can identify areas for improvement and implement strategies to enhance your website's structure effectively.
Remember that website optimization is an ongoing process, so continue to monitor, iterate, and refine your strategies to ensure long-term success.
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