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A lot of people don't know how to structure their website for SEO, which can lead to a lot of wasted time and money.

Not structuring your website correctly for SEO can be incredibly costly and time-consuming. You could end up with a website that doesn't rank well in search engines, or worse, one that gets penalized by Google.

The best way to improve your site's structure and SEO is to first understand why it's important and then make incremental improvements to get on the right track. In this guide, we'll teach you how to structure your website for maximum SEO efficiency. Let's jump right in with why site structure is important for SEO.

Why is the structure of website important for SEO?

One of the quickest ways to improve your website's SEO ranking is to focus on the site structure. A well-structured website makes it easy for both users and search engines to find what they're looking for. When you create a clear and concise hierarchy for your pages, you make it easier for search engines to index and rank them as well as making it easier for users to navigate them, which search engines also like.

A well-structured website also helps users navigate the site quickly and efficiently. This is especially important for e-commerce sites, where customers want to find products as easily as possible.

If you're not convinced that site structure matters, just look at Amazon's homepage:

As you can see, Amazon's homepage is well-structured and easy to navigate. The main categories are clearly labeled at the top of the page, and each subcategory is listed below it. Users can quickly find what they're looking for by browsing the menus or using the search bar.

The same is true for Google's search results page:

Google's search results page is also well-structured and easy to navigate. The main categories are clearly labeled at the top of the page with individual results found underneath. Users can quickly find what they're looking for by browsing the menus or using the search bar.

The best way to make sure your site structure is effective is to test it on a small scale. Try creating a few pages with different hierarchies and see which one works best. To ensure that your site's markup looks good, you can also use Google's Structured Data Testing Tool.

If you're having trouble structuring your website, consider using a content management system (CMS) like WordPress. This will make it easy for your to create pages with different levels of hierarchy and include metadata, such as titles and descriptions.

Ideal Site Structure: 3 Basic Structures

There are three basic website structures: hierarchical, linear and random. Each type has its own pros and cons. Let's take a look at what they are!

Hierarchical Structure:

In this site structure, the information is arranged in levels of importance or relevance to each other. The most important pages come first while less important pages follow. This structure is common in businesses and organizations, where the main categories are listed at the top of the page with subcategories below them.

Pros:

Hierarchical site structures are easy to understand and navigate for both users and search engines. They're also great for sites that have a lot of content because they can be easily organized into categories.

Cons:

Hierarchical site structure can be difficult to maintain as more content is added across web-pages, especially if it's not organized properly.

Linear Structure:

In this site structure, the information is arranged in a sequence from left to right or top to bottom on the page and is often seen on a landing page. It usually follows some sort of narrative order like chronological order (first comes first). This site structure is common in blogs and news websites.

Pros:

Linear site structure is easy to follow and understand. It's also great for sites that have a lot of content because they can be easily organized into sequences.

Cons:

Linear site structure can be difficult to maintain as more content is added, especially if it's not organized properly.

Random Structure:

In this site structure, the information is arranged in no particular website hierarchy order. This structure is common on social media websites where users can post anything they want at any time without following any specific rules or guidelines.

Pros:

Random structures are easy to maintain as more content is added because there aren't many rules about how things should be organized.

Cons:

This structure is not very user-friendly and it's difficult to find specific pieces of information on the site because everything looks so jumbled up together. It may also make people feel like they're lost in an infinite abyss of data without any way to find their way out.

So, which is the ideal site structure for you? It really depends on your site's content and what you're trying to achieve. If you're not sure, try using a mix of different structures to see which one works best.

The Best Ways to Improve Your Site's Structure and SEO

Make sure your website is easy to navigate.

You should aim for a site that has a clear path from one page to another. This will help users find what they're looking for quickly and efficiently. Plus, Google loves ranking sites that are easy for people to use!

Use proper tags and meta descriptions.

It's also important that all of your pages are optimized with the proper tags and meta descriptions. This will help Google understand what your page is about and increase your chances of ranking in search engine results pages.

Tags help search engines determine how relevant your site is to a particular topic or keyword phrase. Meta descriptions are used by users when they conduct searches for specific keywords on Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and other popular search engines. If you don't have meta descriptions for your pages, the search engines will pull a snippet of text from your page to use as the description. You want to make sure that this text is enticing and accurately represents the content of your page. So, the more you can steer what Google presents, the better.

Create URL structure with navigation hierarchy in mind

You can create a URL structure that follows your navigation hierarchy by using keywords in the pathname of each page, such as: domain.com/category/sub-category/page.html. This will help Google understand the structure of your website and increase your chances of ranking in search engine results pages.

Optimize your images.

Images are a great way to improve the aesthetics of your website, but they can also help with your SEO efforts. When you upload an image to your site, be sure to include keywords and descriptions in the file name and fill out the alternate text field. This will help search engines crawl and index your images, which can lead to better rankings.

Plus, images give your reader a visual break from walls of text and can help keep them engaged with your content. This is a win for your user and a win with the search engines. They love rewarding content that keeps users engaged and happy.

Provide quality content on a regular basis.

Search engines love fresh, relevant, and informative content that's updated often. When visitors come across your site, they're more likely to stick around if the information on it is up-to-date with current trends; so make sure you publish new articles regularly (every week/month) for them not only to stay interested but also help increase visibility through organic rankings in search engine results pages!

Improve internal linking structure.

Internal linking is another important factor that can help improve your site's SEO. When you link to other pages on your website from within your content, this is called an internal link. This can help search engines crawl and index your site more effectively because it gives them a better understanding of how your site is structured. Additionally, internal links help pass PageRank (a metric used by Google to rank websites) from one page to another, which can help increase the rankings of those pages.

So, how do you go about creating an internal linking structure that will benefit your SEO? There are two main ways:

• Use relevant anchor text. Anchor text is the visible part of a link that users see and click on. When you link to other pages on your website, make sure that the anchor text is relevant and descriptive of what users will see when they click the link.

• Create a silo structure. A silo structure is when you group your website's content into categories and subcategories, with each category having its own unique URL. This is beneficial for SEO since it informs search engines about the structure and layout of your website's material.

Final Thoughts

SEO is an art and science that can be difficult to master but we hope this article has given you a good place to get started with your site structure and SEO success.

At DevDigital, we walk our customers through the digital transformation process from beginning to end. With our help, you can make sure your website has a clear path and that users find what they're looking for quickly and efficiently. We've got your back! We're here to help you succeed in the digital age. Let us know what's going on and we'll develop a plan right for you. Our team of web specialists is eager for collaboration so give them a shout-out today.

Lets do this together!.