What Is Website Architecture? (& How to Improve it for SEO)

What Is Website Architecture?

Website architecture (also called website structure) is really a site’s pages are organized. A well-structured tract helps users and hunt engines navigate your site. Which tin amended your SEO and rankings. 

Here’s a ocular illustration of website structure:

These pages are linked together done internal links—links that constituent to different pages connected nan aforesaid site. These links tin beryllium wrong nan content, successful filters aliases related contented modules, aliases wrong nan site’s paper and footer.

Why Is Website Structure Important for SEO?

Site architecture and SEO spell hand-in-hand for a fewer reasons:

• It helps hunt engines find and scale each your site’s pages
• It gives hunt engines further discourse for each page
• It spreads authority passim your webpages via soul links
• It helps visitors find nan contented they’re looking for

It Helps Search Engines Find and Index Your Site’s Pages

Good tract architecture tin thief pages rank successful nan hunt results. 

Google often uses soul links to find pages and past scale (store) those pages successful its database.

An organized tract building helps Google navigate soul links to observe caller pages to adhd to its index. And prevents orphan pages—pages pinch nary soul links pointing astatine them (which whitethorn beryllium difficult for Google to observe and index).

Your pages will only rank successful nan hunt results—and thrust traffic—when they are successful Google’s index. Which you tin execute done a well-structured site.

It Gives Search Engines Additional Context for Each Page

Additional discourse helps hunt engines understand which queries to rank each page for. 

For example, opportunity you waste pet supplies. And you person different pages for animals for illustration dogs, cats, and rabbits.

Search engines tin understand which toys are for which types of animals based connected nan pages they nexus to and from. And from nan anchor text (the clickable matter successful a link).

This artifact (pictured below) doesn’t person nan word’s “dog toy” successful nan title. But it’s linked from a “dog toys” page. So, hunt engines whitethorn cognize to spot it successful nan hunt results if personification searches queries for illustration “dog toys.”

However, hunt engines whitethorn struggle to understand nan intent of each webpage if your website’s building isn’t straightforward. The deficiency of a clear discourse mightiness harm your integrated rankings.

It Spreads Authority Throughout Your Webpages 

PageRank is simply a Google algorithm that measures a page’s authority based connected nan value of backlinks—links from outer sites—that constituent to that page. 

And important pages (typically pages pinch tons of value backlinks) tin walk immoderate authority down to nan different pages they nexus to. 

This mightiness thief pages pinch little authority rank higher. So you tin thrust much postulation to them.

It Helps Visitors Find nan Content They’re Looking For

A bully tract building tin amended user experience. And there’s a higher chance users will click astir your tract erstwhile nan acquisition is good. Which whitethorn move much casual visitors into leads aliases customers down nan road.

And you should scheme your website’s building truthful users tin easy move down your marketing funnel by navigating to pages for illustration products, services, and different important pages. 

Sephora, for example, does this well.

The constitution website’s user-friendly navigation paper groups their products into well-known categories (e.g., Makeup, Skincare, Makeup for Eyes, etc.). That way, shoppers tin find nan products they want successful a fewer clicks.

What Does a Good Site Architecture Look Like?

The champion website structures are flat, group topically applicable contented together, and don’t person immoderate orphan pages.

Let’s talk each constituent successful much detail.

Flat Website Architecture

A level website architecture is erstwhile users tin entree your contented successful arsenic fewer clicks arsenic possible.

This way, users don’t request to activity excessively difficult to find nan contented they want. And little personification effort tin lead to a amended personification experience.

Here’s a level tract architecture diagram: 

And this is an illustration of heavy website architecture (where users request to click much to entree definite pages):

The perfect click extent (the number of clicks it takes to scope immoderate page connected your site) is 3 clicks aliases fewer. So, look to support your tract architecture to 3 clicks aliases little arsenic you creation nan architecture for your website.

Group Topically Relevant Content Together

Grouping topically applicable content—content wrong a circumstantial topic—helps hunt engines find your pages. And spot really different pages link to 1 another.

It besides helps you build topical authority (your expertise connected a subject).

Strong topical authority tin amended your rankings successful nan hunt results. So you thrust much integrated postulation to your site.

No Orphan Pages

Search engines recreation nan web done links. So they whitethorn struggle to access—and rank—orphan pages. And users tin only entree orphan pages by straight visiting nan URL.

So, orphan pages tin wounded your site’s SEO and personification experience.

You tin find orphan pages connected your tract by heading into Semrush’s Site Audit.

Enter your domain and click “Start Audit.” (Or click “Create project” if you don’t person a task already group up.)

Configure your Site Audit settings (our configuration guide tin thief you if you get stuck). And click “Start Site Audit.”

Click “Issues” erstwhile nan Site Audit is complete.

And type “orphan” into nan hunt barroom to bring up a database of orphaned pages. Click nan “# orphaned pages” nexus to position nan pages.

Identify applicable pages to nexus to each orphaned page. This will thief users and hunt engines easy find these pages successful nan future.

9 Website Architecture Best Practices

These tips will thief you create a beardown tract architecture to amended your SEO and personification experience:

1. Use nan Right Type of Structure for Your Site

There’s nary one-size-fits-all attack for website structure. And really you take to shape your tract depends connected things for illustration nan size of your site, its goals, and your users.

An ecommerce tract mightiness take to shape their website architecture by merchandise categories. Like book retailer Indigo does:

And to show products, you mightiness determine to paginate results (i.e., show products aliases hunt results connected abstracted pages). 

Pagination offers much soul linking opportunities. Which tin thief hunt engines further understand really your pages link to 1 another.

And contented sites mightiness take to building their tract based connected different contented categories. Like Business Insider:

Unsure which attack is champion for you? Look astatine your competitors and spot if location are immoderate commonalities among them. 

The measurement competitors building their sites tin springiness you ideas connected really to building yours. Plus, users mightiness expect a akin tract building erstwhile visiting akin sites. For easiness of navigation and familiarity. 

2. Plan nan Information Architecture of Your Site

Information architecture is nan process of structuring and organizing content. One measurement to shape your contented is done content pillars and topic clusters.

Content pillars are your main, broader categories of content. And clusters are your subcategories that support nan pillars. 

Say you wanted to create contented clusters astir different types of marketing. Like email trading and integer marketing.

To build retired these contented clusters, unfastened a keyword investigation instrumentality for illustration nan Keyword Strategy Builder. 

Enter your seed (broad) keywords. In this case, we’ll usage “email marketing,” “digital marketing,” “social media marketing,” and “content marketing.” Lastly, prime your state successful nan drop-down and click “Create list.” 

The instrumentality will analyse each seed keyword and springiness you pillar page ideas pinch lists of applicable subpages.

Go done nan different suggestions and prime which ones you’d for illustration to create contented for.

For example, you mightiness create a taxable cluster for “digital marketing” that has these subpages:

• Digital trading run examples
• Benefits of integer trading for mini businesses
• Types of integer advertising
• Digital trading framework
• Digital trading elements

Follow this process for each pillar page you want to create.

Then, constitute contented for each selected page by clicking “Write content.” 

Choose which instrumentality you’d for illustration to constitute contented for (e.g. prime “Desktop” if astir of your assemblage sounds your contented connected a desktop). Then click “Send keywords.”

This opens Semrush’s SEO Writing Assistant—an AI-powered editor that gives you tailored suggestions connected your content’s readability, SEO, reside of voice, and originality. To thief it rank higher successful nan hunt results.

After penning each portion of content, usage soul links to nexus your homepage to nan pillar page, nan pillar pages to 1 another, and nan applicable pillar page to its taxable clusters.

3. Use Internal Linking Strategically

When you nexus from 1 page to another, you convey to hunt engines (and users) that nan 2 pages are related. Which helps hunt engines find your site’s structure. And users navigate your site.

Links besides walk authority, truthful it’s bully believe to nexus to relevant, important pages connected your website.

Use Site Audit to hole immoderate issues pinch your soul linking—like surgery soul links that forestall users from clicking astir your site.

Open your Site Audit study and click “View details.”

Review—and fix—any soul nexus issues by clicking nan “# issues” button. You tin besides click “Why and really to hole it” to get tips that will thief you hole each issue.

And reappraisal nan “Pages passing astir Internal LinkRank” widget. Internal LinkRank is simply a Semrush metric that quantifies nan authority of your site’s pages. 

You mightiness see placing pages pinch precocious authority adjacent nan apical of your tract architecture (if it makes sense). So they tin walk down authority to smaller pages. 

4. Make Sure Users Can Access Your Pages successful Just a Few Clicks

Users should beryllium capable to entree contented connected your website successful arsenic fewer clicks arsenic imaginable (ideally 3 aliases fewer). Even if you tally a ample ecommerce tract pinch a cardinal pages.

The extent of your architecture besides affects really hunt engines crawl your site. Search engines navigate websites done links. So nan little nan crawl depth, nan quicker (and much likely) hunt engines tin navigate to a webpage.

You tin usage Site Audit to find retired which pages connected your tract require much than 3 clicks to access.

Hit nan fastener beside nan “Page Crawl Depth much than 3 clicks,” successful nan “Notices” conception of nan “Internal Linking” report.

You’ll get a database of pages that require excessively galore clicks to access.

Consider simplifying your tract building for pages that return 4 aliases much clicks to visit.

5. Use Categories and Tags

Sites that people blog posts should see utilizing categories and tags to group applicable blog posts together. Users and hunt engines tin usage these groupings to navigate your tract and find applicable content.

Categories broadly group posts. For example, Semrush’s blog has 3 main categories: “SEO,” “Marketing,” and “News & Research.”

And each class has different subcategories. Like “Keyword Research” and “On-page SEO” for nan main “SEO” category.

There are a assortment of ways to take blog categories:

• Review your site’s contented and find which topics you constitute astir nan most. Turn these main topics into your categories.
• Use pillar page topics to shape categories
• Analyze competitor blogs and exemplary your categories disconnected nan ones they use
• Use Semrush’s Keyword Strategy Builder instrumentality to make class ideas
• Organize contented by type (rather than topic). Like “how-to guides,” “tutorials,” and “case studies”

Tags, connected nan different hand, often subordinate categories together. 

For example, opportunity you person a website astir hiking. You mightiness usage categories for topics for illustration places to hike, gear, and tips. And you mightiness usage tags to group together contented for circumstantial readers. Like contented for beginners and contented for precocious hikers.

6. Optimize Your Site’s URLs

It’s important to support URLs clear and consistent. Because Google uses them to understand nan level and building of your website. 

A bully URL is short, contains your main keyword, and is easy for users to understand. Here’s an illustration of an optimized URL that intelligibly communicates nan taxable of nan page:

And here’s an illustration of a poorly optimized URL that users (and hunt engines) whitethorn find confusing:

Before publishing your page, guarantee nan URL is concise and intelligibly explains what your page is about.

It’s easy to support a accordant URL building erstwhile you usage your contented pillars and clusters for reference.

For example, pillar page URLs could travel nan format yourdomain.com/pillar-topic/

And your cluster page URLs could beryllium yourdomain.com/pillar-topic/cluster-topic/

Here’s what that could look for illustration if we usage nan “digital marketing” illustration from above:

1. Pillar page: yourdomain.com/digital-marketing
2. Cluster subtopic page: yourdomain.com/digital-marketing/framework

There are usually 3 menus to consider:

1. Header navigation
2. Footer navigation
3. Mobile navigation

Additionally, immoderate sites mightiness besides person secondary navigations aliases contextual navigations that alteration based connected nan contented type aliases whether users are logged in.

And while there’s nary 1 correct measurement to building your menu, it’s champion to support your tract easy to navigate. So customers tin find important pages and (hopefully) convert.

Here are immoderate tips:

Using a navigational paper is an easy measurement to link pages and reenforce your tract structure. Because menus are simply collections of important links.

There are a fewer different types of navigation menus to take from. 

Like a drop-down menu, which useful good for sites pinch tons of content. You tin item galore pages while still providing a clear way for nan user.

Or a straightforward horizontal menu:

Horizontal menus activity good for smaller sites and should supply categories users expect (like “Shop,” “Contact,” “About Us,” etc.). 

You tin besides opt for a vertical sidebar navigation menu:

This action is akin to a horizontal navigation menu. While it tin supply much existent property for top-level navigation links, it tin return up valuable abstraction connected your site. And could screen important contented that you don’t want users to miss.

Footer navigation appears astatine nan bottommost of websites:

Consider utilizing your footer navigation to location important links that aren’t related to your main categories but are still useful for your user. Like property links, informational contented astir nan institution and their policies, aliases links to your interaction page.

Mobile Navigation

Google uses mobile-first indexing. Which intends Google prioritizes indexing nan mobile type of your site. 

So, salary attraction to your mobile site’s navigation. And make judge it’s arsenic intuitive arsenic nan desktop version.

Hamburger navigation menus are a celebrated action connected mobile devices. This type of navigation appears vertically connected smaller screens.

Like this:

Retailer Kohl’s condenses their desktop paper to see nan aforesaid links successful their scrollable mobile menu. Users tin still entree nan aforesaid pages connected mobile devices (and hunt engines tin crawl nan aforesaid ones, too).

Breadcrumb navigation is simply a text-based navigation way made up of links. It shows users wherever they are successful your tract structure.

Breadcrumbs besides pass to hunt engines really your tract is structured.

They show nan way to nan page a personification is connected and look for illustration this:

When users click done your site, they don’t ever navigate straight to nan merchandise they yet bargain aliases nan contented they yet read. So it’s adjuvant to show their navigation path, successful lawsuit they request to backtrack. 

9. Use HTML and XML Sitemaps

A website sitemap is simply a record that shows each nan pages, images, videos, and files connected your website. 

It shows really different parts of your tract are related to each different successful a crawlable format for hunt engines.

An HTML sitemap is designed for users. So if they can’t find a definite page, they tin position a afloat database of each page connected your site.

Like this:

XML sitemaps, connected nan different hand, are created pinch hunt engines successful mind. They show a afloat database of URLs successful plain matter truthful crawlers tin easy entree them.

Here’s an illustration of an XML sitemap:

You should create different sitemaps for different sections of your website (like products, blogs, and categories). As aggregate sitemaps tin create level and amended crawlability. 

If your sitemap has errors, it whitethorn mean hunt engines are incapable to find aliases process definite webpages. And hunt engines whitethorn take to disregard pages they can’t process. Which could lead to issues pinch ranking.

To find XML sitemap issues, spell to nan “Issues" tab wrong nan Site Audit tool. Then hunt for “sitemap” successful nan hunt bar. 

That should propulsion up a database of imaginable XML sitemap errors, for illustration formatting errors and incorrect pages.

 Click “Why and really to hole it” to get tips for fixing each issue.

After fixing each issue, submit your sitemap to Google done Google Search Console. So Google tin find each nan pages connected your tract without moving into errors.

Take nan Next Steps to Improve Your SEO

Defining your website’s architecture will use your users and hunt engines. And tin amended your SEO to thief you rank higher.

Not judge wherever to start? 

Here’s what we suggest:

1. Use Site Audit to cheque for soul nexus issues, orphaned pages, and reappraisal pages pinch nan highest Internal LinkRank people (your astir charismatic pages)
2. Develop contented clusters and pillar pages pinch nan Keyword Strategy Builder tool
3. Map retired your page and usage nan tract building to pass your site’s navigation

Ready to amended your site’s architecture? Try Semrush for free today.