As an Australian business increasingly dependent on the Internet for new leads and customers, you probably don’t give attention to your website architecture. It’s a technical topic and providing the information’s there on your pages, you’re sure your visitors will find it.
That may not be the case unless you’ve taken considerable care with your site architecture. Moreover, the downside of this neglect can be considerable.
In today’s competitive business environment, visitors to your website expect fast, convenient access what they’re looking for.
Frustrate them for a moment and they’ll be gone. Your competitor’s site with the better architecture will be the winner and you’ll be the loser. If you want to avoid this, contact Smart SEO.
So what exactly do we mean by architecture and why is it so important?
Architecture refers to the structure of your website, the way in which the content is organised, and how the various pages are linked together.
Having effective website architecture is crucial because it strongly influences the usability and ultimately the quality of user experience. It also affects how visible your pages are to the search engines.
Easy, Intuitive Navigation
You want both the search engine bots and human visitors to effortlessly find their ways around your site. Any page a bot has trouble finding won’t be indexed and any page a visitor has trouble accessing won’t be visited.
Other than the actual linking, this kind of usability also includes such factors as page structure, and the readability and organisation of your content.
You need menus that are clear and intuitive. They should leave the user in no doubt as to what he’ll find at the end of the link.
If you don’t get it right at the beginning, you’ll experience problems later when you realise your architecture is too convoluted or constrained. Tacking on new pages or worse, redoing the whole site layout, can have serious implications for SEO so it’s best to get it right from the start.
Get Your Taxonomy Right
Taxonomy refers to the logical hierarchy of your site and how the various pages are organised and grouped. Generally a top down approach works best with the various parts of the site emerging from a central key topic.
A site with a good taxonomy is easier to maintain, manage and expand. When sites become several levels deep, they can be difficult to navigate and manage. Flaws such as 404 errors can arise unnoticed and affect overall site quality.
As with any component of website development, keeping your target user at the forefront of your mind is the ideal procedure. That combined with the main goals of your site should determine the basis of information architecture.
If you want a website that’s clear and logical, optimised for your user from the start, and easy to expand as your business grows, contact Smart SEO the design experts today.
