What is site architecture?

Site architecture is the way the pages of a website are organized and connected, through menus, categories, URL structure and internal links. A good architecture helps visitors quickly find what they are looking for, and helps search engines discover all important pages and understand how important each one is.

Why is site architecture important?

Findability: important pages that sit close to the homepage are found and crawled more easily.
Ease of use: a logical layout helps visitors find what they are looking for faster.
Scalability: new pages fit into the structure without chaos.

Examples of site architecture

Flat structure: every important page within three clicks of the homepage
Service business: Home, Services, SEO, Local SEO
Online store: Home, Category, Subcategory, Product

How do you design site architecture?

First map out the structure you want, keep it flat and logical and use clear menu names. Make sure every important page can be reached through internal links, add breadcrumbs and avoid orphan pages that nothing links to. See technical SEO.

Site architecture