An effective website structure is essential if you want to have a high ranking in the search engines. Different websites have their own specific goals so the structure should be built in accordance with the aim which the website owner tries to reach.
However, there are general principles, tips and tricks which will help you enhance the SEO of your website immensely no matter what product you would like to promote.
If you are serious about developing your product, check out our guidelines on how to create and follow a powerful structure which will bring a desirable result.
Why the structure is important
Very often, many companies think that if their product is great, it must be sufficient for effective selling and increasing profit. However, having an inconsistent, complex or hard to navigate structure can put off the customer after several minutes of browsing the website.
Weak website structure is a huge mistake from the business owner side because overlooking the importance of great site structure can cost such companies dearly. Nowadays, bad SEO performance can result in an owner missing an opportunity to attract new clients and lose current customers. Moreover, you can lose your business, if you do not have a powerful website structure, providing users with a great experience.
Here are some aspects to remember when creating your website and enhancing SEO:
Brainstorm the hierarchy
Hierarchy is an important principle to use when you start creating a website from scratch. Obviously, this is one of the most common ways of organizing information on your website. Avoid overcomplicating the structure because the simpler it is, the more you can enhance SEO.
Work on the header
Take extra time to work on the header as it must be clear and concise with a minimum of subcategories. The extra information will be provided in drop-down menus so listing just the main categories will help the reader not get distracted.
Keep an eye on the size of the categories
For better usability, the categories and the number of subcategories should be approximately the same size. An oversized category can cause confusion for the user and will decrease the SEO of the website.
Use sitelinks
Sitelinks are extremely important and provide a great advantage for navigating the website. They give easy access to the most relevant information, can help you increase the clickthrough rate and be on top of SERPs.
Add tags
Adding tags can significantly benefit your site. While categories are basically the table of content, tags can be classified as the index. Proper usage of tags can really help search engines like Google to understand the structure of your website better.
Always keep crawlers in mind
Clear indexing and proper usage of keywords can help your website be found by crawlers easier. Using HTML or CSS for navigation will make it easier for crawlers find the information on your website.
Create SEO friendly URLs
Permalink structure has to be SEO friendly. Keep in mind that URLs need to be short and concise so that it’s easier for the user (and for the search engine) to find the page.
Cornerstone content
The pages that contain the main part of your website’s content are important because they provide visitors with an understanding of your activity and aims. Web pages that contain content focused on keywords and descriptive information should be high in the overall structure of the site. They should be linked to the home page. Also, make sure that these pages are clear and informative.
Updates
Remember that a website structure is dynamic. If your services and strategies change over time, the website’s structure should keep up with those changes. Once you forget about the necessity of a comprehensive structure, there is a risk that your site will turn into a multipage monster. Coherence is something you should keep in mind, because if some product pages don’t match the navigation, your website will lose its logic.
Edit and delete
This is especially important if you own an online shop, where the items change from time to time. Also, the most popular items will be sold out quickly but the demand will remain so be sure to watch for old information and delete pages that are out-of-date.
Some links that lead to outdated content may still be useful and you can keep them if you still benefit from those pages.
There are a lot of things to consider in terms of website optimization, so working on improving SEO is vitally important.
A well-defined structure can help your website be easily found and your product promoted. Keep in mind the usability of your website but, more importantly, make sure that the structure of your website is one which enhances SEO.
