What is the best way to structure website?
You developed a website, but without a proper structure, it will be of no use as Google finds it difficult to crawl the website, impacting its visibility. Incorporating effective web design principles is essential to ensure optimal crawlability and user experience. It results in many unindexed pages and affects ranking. The website structure is crucial in enhancing user experience. It must be organized enough for users to navigate and interact with the website easily. A proper structure helps search engines crawl easily and helps users understand where they are on the website.
What is a website structure?
A website structure refers to how the website is designed and contents are arranged or how various pages are connected to create a seamless experience for the users. There can be several topics that are related to each other. Website structure involves arranging similar topics into groups and categories for the visitors to access the content without any confusion easily. Users get to explore and meet their needs with ease with a proper site structure. This creates more engagement and a better user experience for the website.
Types of website structures
Websites are designed by following a specific structure that meets the purpose of the website. Let's take a look at the common structures used in websites.
- Linear structure
- Hierarchical structure
- Webbed structure
What is a linear site? In the linear model, web pages are placed in a sequential order as if the users are passed the information in that order. This structure is mainly used for creating small and simple websites presenting any brand, service, or product.
This is the most popular and commonly used structure suitable for websites of any size. This structure is made in a way that guides the visitors from the homepage to many other subpages arranged in categories. The new content added to the website does not disturb the overall site structure. This structure works best for content-heavy websites like e-commerce.
It is a network structure where each is connected to all other pages in the website through links. Thus is suited best for websites with fewer subpages.
How to create a website structure?
WordPress is the best place for anyone to host their websites. WordPress support service is available 24/7 for the users to assist.The best way to create an intuitive website structure is by following these tips, which will help you to plan a proper website structure.
- Look into your competitors
- Identify your structure
- Build a user flow diagram
- Use internal linking
- Sitemap creation
Research your competitor's website with similar functions and target audience. Act yourself as a user and visit their website to know how well the contents are structured and arranged. Notice the positive and negative aspects of the structure formed. This will help you to know where users enjoy the website well and don’t. Once you finished reviewing competitors, you can implement a user-centric structure on your website.
Now plan the structure you want in your website with the references taken from the competitors. Note the categories and subcategories to be included along with the right model to use depending on the number of pages added to the website.
Determine the user objective on visiting the site and how the user experience should be. Decide your objective on what the users should do on your website. It can be for signing up for a newsletter or to download any content. So making it clear ensures you create the website structure the users would like to experience.
Create an appropriate design once you have made a structure on your website for the users to easily navigate. Add important links to the subpages on the navigation bar for the users to reach out to those pages with relevant information. Getting to know what the users expect to do makes the navigation stronger with all the essential links to the inner pages like the services page, about us page, contact page, etc.
All pages on your website are presented in an HTML sitemap. The pages are shown under relevant categories. So the sitemap must be designed with a perfect structure where everything is well-organized enough for the users to understand the most accessible pages. Creating a sitemap on your website helps the users to navigate properly.
