SEO | How to Design the Optimal Site Architecture

Alter choosing  the best CMS Platform,  one must consider the technical, aesthetic and functional criteria of one’s website design . Your  site architecture can directly influence your website’s ranking in the Google Search Engine results page (SERP).

# 1 | Silos

A farmer thinks of a silo as a structure for storing grain, coal, cement, wood chips, sawdust, or other bulk materials by a specific category.

SEO Companies use the silo concept to guide the search engines to understanding the theme/ subject of each web page on your site by grouping like content pages under one, highly organized directory.

Think of your website’s architecture like a libraries Dewey Decimal Card Catalog System. In order for the library to be effective, everything must be tightly grouped in its place and filed under the appropriate structured heading.

Example: If your site specialized in yoga teachers, all of your yoga teacher pages could be designed by yoga  location. The two would never be mixed as either content or cross-linking.

A yoga teacher silo might look similar to this:

  • ynottony..com/yoga teacher/san-francisco
  • ynottony..com/yoga teacher/mill-valley
  • ynottony.com/yoga teacher/oakland
  • ynottony.com/yoga teacher/san-jose
  • The architectural naming system helps establish that these pages are all about yoga teachers.
  • Each page is named after significant keywords to help the search engines to find it!
  • Sticking to this design will  prevent your themes from blurring.

#2 | Website Depth

  •  How many clicks does it takes for the user to go from your homepage to the farthest page on your website?
  • Web pages that are positioned in the root folder will receive higher Google rankings than those found in a sub-folder.
  • The lower the number of clicks it takes to reach each individual web page, the higher the page rank in the Google Search Engine.
  • Many SEO Consultants advise having one sub-folders level (meaning, not creating sub-sub-folders).
  • See: Website Structure

Example of Bad Website Depth:

  • ynottony..com/yoga teacher/san-francisco
  • ynottony..com/yoga teacher/berlin
  • ynottony.com/yoga teacher/paris
  • ynottony.com/yoga teacher/san-jose
  • ynottony..com/yoga teacher/san-diego
  • ynottony..com/yoga teacher/amsterdamn
  • ynottony.com/yoga teacher/oakland
  • ynottony.com/yoga teacher/tokyo

Example of Good Website Depth:

  • ynottony..com/yoga teacher/california/san-francisco
  • ynottony.com/yoga teacher/california/oakland
  • ynottony.com/yoga teacher/california/san-jose
  • ynottony..com/yoga teacher/california/san-diego
  • ynottony..com/yoga teacher/europe/berlin
  • ynottony.com/yoga teacher/europe/paris
  • ynottony..com/yoga teacher/europe/amsterdamn
  • ynottony.com/yoga teacher/asia/tokyo

3 # | Friendly URL’s | File & Folder Names

Optimize your site silo by inserting distinctive targeted keywords into the urls of each individual webpage.

If putting  more than one keyword into a web page name, separate keywords with a hyphen (-).

  • GOOD Example: http://ynottony.com/yoga-teacher
  • BAD Example: http://ynottony.com/yoga_teacher.htm

And remember, Google rewards websites using secure “HTTPS” urls with a small ranking boost.

4 # | Responsive Design

 Write down a conceptual idea of what the actual webpages will visually look like.

The purpose: to produce an idea of where components will be placed on each individual web page. [Ex: logo,  search box, sign-in box, main navigation menu, page content, and social media widgets].

User Interface  & Responsive Design plays an important role in site’s bounce back rates. Some SEO analysis suggest that a bounce back rates higher than 50% is  considered bad for rankings in the Google Search Engine.

5 # | Interactions 

Interactions simulate how folks will use your website. What happens when a person comes to your website?  It describes what web users will experience as they interact with the site via forums, contact us forms, sign in,  retail commerce webpages and what happens when there’s an error.

#6 |  “On-Page” Optimization

  • After building your website architecture, begin an online SEO keyword analysis to determine words or phrases which describe your webpage content.
  • Insert targeted keywords into the names of the media files and webpage content.
  • Keep in mind that the broader your keywords are, the more competition there is for them!
  • Long-tail keywords might produce less traffic but they drive a more targeted visitor.

Website Architecture Links:

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