The Role of Website Architecture In SEO: A Complete Guide

When you enter a beautifully designed home, you feel a positive synergy and contentment just being there. The same is true for your website architecture and SEO. If your website has an SEO-friendly structure, it will attract more visitors and increase user experience. Besides, a good website architecture impacts its scalability, user experience, and SEO ranking. There is no hard and fast rule when it comes to selecting a website architecture, as many use different models and different website architecture design facets. In this blog, you will get to know the best practices for website structure and the importance of website architecture in SEO. 

The importance of website architecture in SEO

Imagine entering a website with a specific thing on your mind but not finding it with a few clicks. It will be an awful experience, a most irritating one, and the likelihood of abandoning the website is very high. This is where a website architecture plays an important role, whether in navigation, user experience, or easy browser experience.  What do you understand about website architecture? A website architecture is a mechanism or order that a website uses to organize its pages and content nicely for search engines as well as end users. 

Without a strong website architecture, you cannot understand how website architecture impacts SEO. Search engines as well as end users have an inclination towards a website that has a ship-shape website architecture. Lack of website architecture results in low dwell time, conversions, engagement, leads, and online visibility. 

The importance of website architecture in SEO cannot be accentuated in words as the benefits are boundless:

• It helps in the indexing and crawling of web pages – Even if you have tons of top web pages, they need to be seen on search engines. crawlability and indexability of web pages on search engines determine it, and a good site structure helps search engines index your web pages without fail. Only an indexed page can drive traffic to your web pages and online visibility.

• It helps search engines locate content based on context – an SEO-friendly site structure helps search engines find context for the web pages. Content clusters, topics and tags help locate content based on context.

• It accentuates internal linking efforts and passes authority – The PageRank algorithm and internal linking structure pass authority to your website. When you seek a strategic internal linking approach, you will see an increase in link authority as well as link equity distribution.

• It increases overall user experience – A crystal clear and easy to navigate website structure accentuates overall user experience in many ways. Whether it’s products or services, you can organize pages into logical categories and help your target audience find what they want within a minute. Many websites use content pillars and topic clusters to help users with navigation. Simple URLs and category pages are best for acquiring this.

Key elements in website architecture

The following key attributes must be present if you envision your website to have an excellent SEO-friendly site structure. There is no hard and fast rule to choose a website structure as the goal is to provide a logical user journey to find information instantly. 

• Follow a flat architecture – What do we mean by flat architecture? Users and Google can reach out to the web pages within just a few clicks, precisely not more than three or four clicks. It saves a lot of time and effort and helps you catch the eyes of the target. Here, there will be main pages and sub-pages of two tiers.

• Use categories and subcategories for products or services – You might have seen this kind of user-friendly navigation mostly on e-commerce websites. For them, the use of categories is critical. You can classify all products into main categories and subcategories to ease user experience.

• The use of interface components – Interface components on any website help with navigation. You can incorporate elements such as text boxes, widgets, breadcrumbs, radio buttons, notifications, and any other visual elements to ease navigation and contribute to user experience.

• Silo structure SEO – When it comes to website architecture and SEO, silo structure SEO is widely popular. It is a method of organizing a website’s content into silos or individual sections centred by a core content topic. It may also follow a hierarchy.

An SEO-friendly site structure comprises either one of these or combines two or more elements to attain the perfect website architecture, keeping in mind your target persona.  

Best practices for website structure

Whenever you employ top industry practices for website structure, remember how website architecture impacts SEO. 

• Follow a hierarchical structure – Following a hierarchical structure on your website based on core topics and subtopics helps people find the information they require within seconds of their primary visit. Website architecture and SEO demand you to follow some sort of hierarchy for an organised website. The home page leads to sub pages in a ship-shape manner.

• Links matter internally – When you do a proper internal linking structure on your website, search engines will better find your content with context and index pages without fail. These internal links help your target find any additional or related information easily.

• Effective use of breadcrumbs – Breadcrumbs are navigation tools that help your target audience understand where to look for specific information and how to reach them. Your organic ranking and online visibility in SERP Results will be elevated with the effective use of breadcrumbs.

• Make sure content is accessible for people – There are plenty of ways and tactics you can employ to make sure the content is easily accessible for anyone. You can rewire internal linking structure, incorporate top ranking keywords, follow the most suitable site structure, and use tags in the insight section.

A combination of the best practices for website structure offers a wide range of possibilities to embrace. The thing is, you need to ensure your website follows a logical, SEO friendly, and organizational website structure to retain customers as well as search engines. UI UX design company in Dubai can help you build a website with a strong website architecture. You will get a fair idea about how to build an SEO friendly website from veteran experts.