How to Make SEO-friendly Website Structure

Having a well-structured website can improve the performance of your website. This is crucial in building website usability and navigation. Not only for user convenience, but an organized structure also allows search engines to understand your entire site better.

In this article, we will explain what you need to know about a good and SEO-friendly website structure, and how to create one. Here's the discussion.

What is Website Structure?

Website structure refers to the information available within the site itself. Broadly speaking, the term can be interpreted as the way a website is designed. This can be seen from the relationship between one page on the site to another.

Website management, of course, must start with a good structure arrangement. Without proper construction arrangements, the site will only contain a random collection of pages. If this happens, users and search engines will be confused to read the website.

The structured website can be seen from the pyramid model with a number of levels, namely:

• Homepage
• Category
• Sub category
• Pages

In general, users can judge a good website structure from the main navigation or menu. It will show categories and subcategories containing important pages that users need to know. Each page should be linked to make it easier for users to find information on the website.

Not only providing users with important information in a practical way, but an organized structure can also make SEO activities easier. With a structured website, it will be easier for Google bots to crawl so that the page indexing process can be carried out effectively.

The Importance of a Good Website Structure

Organizing the structure of the website is important for usability and ease of search. Most websites with a messy structure can make it difficult for visitors to find the information they are looking for.

The reasons for creating a well-structured website are:

Providing the Best Experience for Users

Having a good structure can make users browse your website comfortably. Information is also easily obtained because it has been neatly organized. That way, don't be surprised if users come back to visit your website, and even become loyal customers of your product.

Helping Google Understand Websites

With a structured website design, it will be easier for Google bots to find important content on your site. This is because search engines understand what the main content is being offered.

In this case, the page indexing process becomes easier to do. Bots can search for pages that need indexing quickly. In short, a good website structure can give your content a high ranking in the SERPs.

Improve SEO Work

An effective crawling and indexing process can improve the performance of your website. This is the right strategy to improve SEO work by optimizing website components that contribute to organizing the overall construction.

Avoiding Content Cannibalization

If the structure of the website is not well organized, then it could be that the content from your website is competing with each other on the search results page. Generally, this is due to the similarity of the contents of the pages on the same website.

Usually, the similarity of content to others is caused by using the same keywords. The indexing process will also be hampered because Google will find it difficult to recognize which is the main content and which is the variant.

Types of Website Structure

Structuring the website can be done according to your needs. For that, there are four types of website structures that you can use, namely:

Linear

Website pages with a Linear structure are arranged logically according to their content. Usually, the homepage takes the user to a service page to be redirected to a request page. On the other hand, the linear system can also be used in categorizing the most general pages into specific ones.

Network

Network systems have more space for websites. Generally, users can use the search feature on the website to get the desired information. That way, users or website visitors have more freedom to consume content according to their needs.

Hierarchical

In general, the Hierarchical structure is the most widely used structure. As the name suggests, this structure is shaped like a tree. At the top, there is a parent page that contains general information. Next, there are categories of these pages called child pages with detailed information.

Matrix

As one of the oldest structures on the web, this Matrix is ​​quite complex and its use needs to be accompanied by search features and internal links. Generally, this structure is used for websites with large amounts of data.

An example of a site that uses a Matrix structure is Wikipedia. The site can present a lot of data and information in a unique format like the cloud. In this case, the arrangement of categories from general to specific is not necessary because the focus of the content is only on certain topics.

How to Create a Good and SEO-friendly Website Structure

After knowing the types of website structures, it's time for you to know how to make them well. Given that the main target of compiling a website structure is to improve SEO work, here are technical and strategic things that you can apply:

Make a Clear Plan

In order for the strategy to run smoothly, you need to know what pages and posts need to be included in the structure. For that, note the content and group each content according to its category.

On the other hand, you also need to do market research to determine the focus of delivering information through a good website structure. From there, the target audience analysis can be done. The data from these two elements can help you choose the type of structure that best suits the needs of your website.

Optimize for Users

SEO work is primarily aimed at improving website performance. However, the structure should still put the interests of the user ahead of the bot. From this point of view, website optimization can be implemented by providing an orderly website layout and not making visitors confused in finding information.

Pay Attention to The Links on Each Page

Linking one page to another is one way to create an SEO website structure. For this reason, it is necessary to use internal links to make it easier for users to explore your website.

Please note that internal link interactions and the time a user spends on a page are important in this regard. For that, be sure to set the number of links and ensure that the links between links are relevant to the topic.

Arrange Heading Hierarchy

Having an SEO website structure is important, as is organizing every page on it. Be sure to use hierarchical headings so both users and bots can understand the structure of the site logically.

In each piece of content, use heading elements in a structured manner. Usually, posts can be written using H1, H2, H3, and H4 to make it easier for visitors to read articles. In this way, the reader's attention level will increase automatically.

Use the Taxonomy System

In addition to the hierarchy, you also need to implement a taxonomy system. This method can help manage the site structure on a regular basis. For that, create categories and subcategories for each content on your website.

Make Sure The Website Is Easy to Navigate

In order not to confuse users, make sure your website is easy to navigate. There are two kinds of navigation that you can choose, namely:

• Menu: usually located at the top of the home page
• Breadcrumb: information at the top of the page to tell the user's position
   

Create Schema Markup

Site structure can be created automatically through schema markup creation. From this schema, structured data can be obtained. The results consist of tags, JSON, code, and rich data that can be understood by search engines later. To get structured data, you can use the JSON LD Generator tool from cmlabs in a practical way.

Perform a Page Audit

Be sure to audit each page to organize the website in a structured manner. If there is content that is underperforming, you can optimize it. However, if there is content that never gets any traffic at all, it is better to delete it and replace it with a page containing more information that users are looking for.

Keep in mind that you will need to redirect URLs for pages that have been removed. That way, users or website visitors will not encounter the 404 error issue. Instead, you will be redirected to another page that was previously specified in the redirect process.

Thus a discussion of a good website structure and how to make it. In addition to the benefit of web users, an SEO-structured website can make it easier for Google to carry out the process of crawling and indexing pages. Therefore, make sure to provide the right data structure so that SEO work can run effectively.