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Master website architecture: Enhance navigation, user experience and SEO

Planning website architecture before wireframing, design and coding is essential for creating a user-centric and SEO-friendly site.

Website architecture
Easily Create a Website Architecture with Slickplan (Tutorial for Beginners)

Architect sites with Slickplan

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What is website architecture?

Website architecture refers to the hierarchical organization of your website's content, pages and navigation built via internal links. A well-structured website allows users to find what they're looking for and helps search engines better index your site.

website architecture

website architecture • [webˌsīt ɑrkəˌtɛkʧər]

The systematic arrangement of web pages to optimize usability and create a logical path to information.

noun

"The eComm platform's success was due to its intuitive website architecture, allowing users to quickly find what they needed"

Synonyms

  • website structure
  • hierarchical structure
  • site architecture
  • content organization
  • navigation design site structure
  • page structure
  • web layout

Why a website's architecture is important

Fitness, food and travel website blog user interface and website architecture

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How to plan website architecture the right way in 8 steps

It's more straightforward and less tricky than you might think, here's how to plan website structure effectively:

Blog post called “consider your website goals” with text bubbles for increasing traffic and engagement
Two user personas for a target audience
Two charts measuring and analyzing competition
Nail your information architecture
Plan your website architecture for content
Develop internal linking strategy
Keep navigation depth shallow
HTML code for a website

Example website architecture diagrams:

Single page website architecture diagram
Flat website architecture diagram
Simple indexed website architecture diagram
Indexed hierarchy website architecture diagram

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How to avoid mistakes when planning website architecture

How to avoid: Organize content in a logical sequence and connect pages based on importance and relevance to ensure an intuitive user experience.

How to avoid: Plan site architecture to align with the typical journey of a user, making information easily accessible at each step and just a few clicks away, max.

How to avoid: Create concise, user-friendly and keyword-rich URLs that reflect your site's hierarchy, helping users understand page content and boosting search engine rankings.

How to plan a website architecture with Slickplan

Whether you're starting from scratch or improving the architecture of a website that already exists, it's easy to get started on your site architecture diagram in Slickplan's Sitemap Builder.

Here's how to structure a website from the dashboard:

  1. Open Slickplan and create a new project
  2. Select "Plan a Website"
  3. Name your project
  4. Start blank or use a sitemap template
  5. Use our site crawler to import an existing site
How to plan a website architecture with Slickplan

Previous

Optimize navigation for users and search engine crawlers by getting a bird’s-eye view of your site's structure, internal linking and organization with a visual sitemap generator.

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Next

Check out our always-free sitemap tool, upgrade to a free 14-day trial at any time to test all features and get access to all of Slickplan’s website planning tools.

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Improve UX with better website architecture, for free

Barnabas Helmy

I make a lot of decisions based on the integrity of companies – not just the features. This makes you stand out. Thanks!

Barnabas Helmy, Founder at SmashToast, Inc.