Step-by-Step Guide to Structuring Your Website for SEO Success

User experience is the key to engaging the audience on your website. Of course, when you visit a website, the first thing that comes to your mind is user-friendliness. But do you know what defines user experience and usability? It is a web application architecture.

Guide showing proper website organization to boost SEO performance and user experience.

A good web application architecture can impact scalability and engagement. Apart from user experience, it affects SEO outcomes. Confused? If your site is well structured, it becomes easier for search engines to navigate your web pages.

There is no rule you need to follow when selecting a website structure. But if you optimize it for Search Engine Optimization, you can expect better results. So, let's understand how web application architecture can shape your SEO results.

Why is Web App Architecture vital for SEO?

Web app architecture is similar to organizing your home. Didn't get the deal? It works on a similar pattern, where you need to organize content and pages for search engines and users.

Also, search engines are inclined towards a website that is well structured. A lack of structure will result in low engagement and conversion rates. Here are some reasons you should know:

  • With a well-structured architecture, you can expect search engines to easily find your site pages and index them. Of course, your pages will only rank if they feature in the Google index.

  • Search engines can search based on context. An SEO-friendly site structure can help search engines find context based on topics, tags, and content clusters.

  • You might be aware that high authority sites rank better in SERP. That's exactly what SEO-optimized web app structure does for you. PageRank is a popular algorithm that measures a web page's authority based on backlink quality.

  • Pages with a strong authority can pass authority to other web pages they link to. This way, you can boost a page with a less authoritative rank.

  • A well-defined site structure helps to ameliorate the UX (user experience). User experience has become an essential aspect of SEO. With a clear structure and navigation, users are more likely to explore the site, which can increase conversions.

So whether it is services or products, organizing your page into logical categories can help you reach your target audience.

Best Web App Architecture Practices for SEO Outcomes

Drive through the crucial practices to adhere to achieve better SEO outcomes, and plan your SEO strategy effectively.

Keep The Structure Simple

Simplicity is the key aspect of site structure. Who would want to visit a site cluttered with information and no space for navigation? As a rule, it is vital to keep your Web Application Architecture simple & seamless.

If you have scores of pages, it can influence user experience. If your site structure is simple, your users can navigate around and find the content they are searching for.

Setting up a site hierarchy from the first day helps. When you start adding categories, content, and pages, it leads to a mess. The more you keep your site structure simple, the more it can impact search engine optimization.

Try Using a Flat Site Architecture

Do you know about flat site architecture? It is an architecture that is better for SEO. A flat architecture implies that search engine crawlers and users can reach any page on your site in fewer than three or four clicks.

Conversely, if you visit a website with deep site architecture, you may require more than four clicks (at times up to 10 clicks). With a flat architecture, Google will easily find all your web pages on your site (without effort).

For example, if you launch a blog page on your website, you can directly link the page to the homepage (menu) so that users can easily reach the page with a single click.

Use a URL Structure

How does Google use URL structure? It uses the structure to understand a web page’s hierarchy. As a result, you must pay attention to the URL structure of the site.

Your URL site structure should follow the categories of your site. For example, you can add a category and subcategory after the main site name. Something like:

https://123example.com/category/subcategory/keyword-keyword
Of course, your URLs won't look the same. But this is a similar format you must follow to increase your visibility. If you follow the above structure, it will shape your SEO outcome (positively).

Add Category Pages and Tags

Blog posts are a familiar category on a website today. If you publish blog posts, then using categories and tags is essential. Well, website categories can cover topics such as marketing, sales, optimization tricks, etc. Other than that, tags transcend these categories.

How will you determine these categories? You can do that by evaluating your topic list and focus areas. Next, you can use pillar page topics to form categories. It's always good to organize your content by type rather than focusing on the topic to increase your reach. In addition, you can analyze your competitors' blogs and model your categories accordingly.

Use a Simple Navigation Menu

Clear paths lead to better visibility, right? The same thing applies to web pages. If the navigation menu is simple, you can expect better results. Essentially, you can start with a header at the top of your navigation menu. After that, you need to add a footer navigation menu (visible at the bottom of the page), followed by a mobile navigation menu.

Mobile navigation is essential if you wish to optimize for mobile phones. Google considers mobile-first indexing in this navigation. Most sites use the hamburger menu to list similar links that are available on the desktop. An easy-to-follow navigation menu is also handy for site visitors.

Use a Site Map

A site map is indispensable for your website and SEO. It shows your site’s filters, pages, and images. For search engines, it is a vital element to discover new content. Ideally, you can use an HTML sitemap for your website, with which you can list every page so that users can locate content (if they are stuck).

Apart from being search engine friendly, they list page URLs in a crawler-friendly format. And the plus side, you can create multiple site maps for site sections (categories, blogs, and products). You can submit your site map with the help of Google Search Console.

Use Internal Links Strategically

If you strategically connect pages within a website, it will show search engines that your site is connected. The internal linking strategy will improve your SEO and establish your authority.

You can link your category pages from the navigation menu and from the category to individual pages. The internal linking strategy also helps to increase site visibility. Users can read other content on your website, which will gain traction.

Strengthen Your SEO Foundation with Better Web Architecture

Now you know how web app architecture impacts SEO. By following the best practices, you can make a difference in your SEO strategy. Follow a simple but hierarchical structure. Make sure your content is accessible and focus on user experience.

Internal linking and simple navigation will result in a better user experience. It is essential to build a navigation system based on the site's structure. Also, you can use site audits to check for internal linking errors and internal link rank pages.

Lastly, you can use the keyword strategy builder to develop pillar pages and content clusters. If you design your structure perfectly, you can improve SEO performance and user experience. Eventually, what matters is your website's rank and reach.

Author

Mr. Harikrishna Kundariya

Author Bio:-

Harikrishna Kundariya, is a marketer, developer, IoT, Cloud & AWS savvy, co-founder, and Director of eSparkBiz, a Software Development Company. His 14+ years of experience enables him to provide digital solutions to new start-ups based on IoT and SaaS applications.

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