SEO Taxonomy: A Guide to a Friendly Website Structure

SEO taxonomy is an important foundation in building a search engine-friendly website structure.

In this article, we will break down the key steps to create an effective taxonomy and ensure a website will be easy to navigate and well-indexed by search engines.

What is Website Taxonomy?

Website taxonomy, often referred to as URL taxonomy, is the structure of URLs that refers to how pages are organized into specific content groups and categories.

This taxonomy significantly affects how search engines like Google understand and index the website pages. The main aspect of website taxonomy is the URL structure used on the site.

Elements in URL Taxonomy

To gain a better understanding of the concept of taxonomy, let's take a look at the example of the URL below:

“https://www.example.com/category/subcategory/related-page”

By the above URL, we have several components that are included in website taxonomy:

1. Protocol (https/http)

In the context of taxonomy, the protocol is a set of rules or standards used to govern data exchange between devices and systems across a network. In taxonomy, there are two criteria for protocols: HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) and HTTPS (HTTP Secure).

HTTP is used to transmit data without encryption, while HTTPS provides an additional layer of security by encrypting the data sent between the device and the web server.

2. Domain (www.example.com)

The domain is a unique address used to identify a website on the internet. It's a crucial part of the URL and is managed and registered by the website owner. The domain can include the site's name, subdomain, and domain extension, such as ".com" or “.net.”

The domain serves as a tool to direct users and search engines to specific pages on the website and provides a unique identity and branding for the site.

3. Subfolder (Category and Subcategory) 

Subfolders are parts of the URL that form the taxonomy structure of the website. Subfolders function to organize website content into categories and subcategories.

For example, if the website is about animals, the category could be "mammals," and the subcategory could be "cats."

4. Slug

The slug is the end part of the URL that identifies a specific page or post within the designated category or subcategory.

Slugs often contain relevant keywords related to the content of that page.

Considerations for SEO Specifications on Website Taxonomy

In the use of website taxonomy, websites will require some considerations so that the site structure can align with SEO specifications, those are:

1. Topical Map and Clustering

A topical map is a design correlating content based on semantics. The goal is to achieve a high level of topical authority by including semantic macro-context with publication frequency.

Thus, a structured website taxonomy can contribute to more effective topical map creation by ensuring that relevant topics are grouped together, thereby enhancing the contextual relevance of web sources. This correlation could improve the search engine ranking of the website for its niche topics.

2. Hreflang

URL taxonomy and hreflang are two related concepts in the context of search engine optimization (SEO), especially for multilingual websites. URL taxonomy pertains to the website's URL structure and how content is organized, while hreflang is an HTML attribute used to inform search engines about the language or country version of a particular web page.

For example, if a website offers content in multiple languages or targets various regions, it can use subfolders in the URL taxonomy to organize language and country versions. An example URL taxonomy would look like this:

• https://www.example.com/en/page (English version)
• https://www.example.com/id/page (Indonesian version)

Then, using the hreflang attribute in HTML tags for each page will inform search engines about the language or country targeted by each page.

3. Internal Linking

In the context of internal linking management, a good URL taxonomy allows for the creation of logically structured internal links because the URL structure reflects how content is organized.

For instance, if a website is about animals, a well-structured URL taxonomy would enable a structure like this:

Main Category: https://www.example.com/mammals

Subcategory: https://www.example.com/mammals/cats

URL: https://www.example.com/mammals/cats/content-slug

By using taxonomy rules, it becomes possible to create a "Related Articles" feature and display articles related to "cats."

4. Crawl Depth

In the SEO context, crawl depth refers to how deep within a website's hierarchy pages are reachable by search engines during the indexing (crawling) process.

The relationship between URL taxonomy and crawl depth is closely related because URL taxonomy influences the depth, indicating how many subfolder layers pages need to traverse to reach a slug.

For example, if a website has a deep URL taxonomy structure with many subfolder layers, such as:

“https://www.example.com/category/subcategory/related-page”

Then, the page will have a deeper crawl depth because it requires more steps (subfolders) to reach that page. Conversely, if it has a shallower URL structure, like:

“https://www.example.com/category/related-page”

Then, the page has a shallower crawl depth because it can be reached more quickly without passing through many subfolders.

How to Create Website Taxonomy in Accordance to SEO Specs

To create a good taxonomy that aligns with SEO specifications, the steps that can be taken are as follows:

1. Identify the main and relevant topic of the website being created.
2. Create categories and subcategories to organize and group pages.
3. If a website has different language and country versions, use subdirectories and employ the hreflang attribute in HTML tags.
4. Create internal links that connect related pages within the same taxonomy.
5. Update the taxonomy as needed based on performance data and user feedback.
6. Ensure that users can easily navigate and find content.
7. Conduct user testing to understand how users interact with the website.

The Usage of Website Taxonomy 

In using taxonomy, it should involve SEO to make the website more structured and easily ranked by search engines. Here are examples of good and less suitable taxonomy usage:
 

Having a good SEO taxonomy will undoubtedly have an impact on the website's performance in the future. Therefore, this must be done correctly. When your business requires a comprehensive SEO strategy, you will greatly benefit from professional assistance.
 

Collaborating with a proficient SEO service can be the best option when you do not yet need or have an in-house SEO team. So, choosing the most suitable SEO agency is a must.