Website Structure

Website structure plays a key role in the search engine optimization process. This refers to the overall hierarchy of the website pages and site navigation as well as coding methods and elements used to construct the pages through website development. Sometimes it is necessary to re-design part or all of a website in order to effectively address the page architecture and coding elements previously used.

It is important that when a website is being developed to keep SEO in mind and ensure the directory structure is created in a clear and concise manner. By having a website developed in a horizontal directory structure that is broken out by theme speaks more truly to search engines and site users. The structural method is also relevant in producing the website navigational system. This reduces the overall “steps” into accessing website content as opposed to a deep vertical file architecture, which results in a very long URL string.

The navigational elements for the website should be reflective of the directory structure in which the site is assembled. This ensures that the website navigation is set up in an organized fashion relative to the document placement within the directory structure. Having a website navigation designed and structured in this manner increases the ease of access for the visitors of your website to reach desired information. By keeping access to information easy for website visitors works bilaterally in terms of search engine bots reaching content and indexing your website for search engine result positioning (SERP).

Using key terms within the file directory and page naming conventions is also beneficial for the optimization of your website. These key terms are determined with thorough keyword research and also through competitor analysis.

Alongside the overall structural file hierarchy and coinciding navigational elements is the manner in which the website is developed. Utilizing cascading style sheets (CSS) with table-less code produces a website developed with cleaner code. Using this method reduces the amount of redundant development code and places your page content towards the top of the coded document. This is a benefit for search engines as they will be able to more efficiently analyze page content for indexing.