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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

Lack of clear hierarchy

Lack of clear hierarchy

Unclear hierarchy leads to struggles with navigation, missed content and higher bounce rates for users and indexing issues for search engines.

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

Overlooking user journey

Overlooking user journey

Failing to sync site structure with a user's journey makes it harder for them to find what they're looking for and in the process lowers conversions.

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.

Poor URL structure

Poor URL structure

Subpar URL structure hampers SEO, making it difficult for search engines to interpret content and confusing users, potentially discouraging clicks.

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

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Visually designing sitemaps is important in properly planning your website. Learn how a visual sitemap generator works.

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Check out our always free sitemap tool and get access to basic features. Upgrade to a free trial at any time to test out the entire suite of features.

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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.