Your website structure or architecture is essential for many reasons. For example, it helps search engines understand your site content, affects your website loading speed and can help improve your website’s usability.
Search engines use your website structure to understand your website content. If your website is well structured, it will be easier for search engines to index your content and understand the purpose of your website. This can help you rank higher in search results.
In addition, your website loading speed is affected by your website structure. A well-structured webpage loads faster because the search engine doesn’t have to crawl through a lot of code to find your content. Therefore, to improve your website’s search engine ranking, loading speed, or usability, you should focus on your website structure.
What Is Website Structure?
The website’s structure is how your pages are organised and interconnected. It’s the skeleton that holds your content together and ensures that Google (and your readers) can find and understand your site.
Well-designed website architecture is essential for two main reasons,
- It helps Google understand your website,
- It lets visitors navigate your website
For a website to rank well in Google and be user-friendly, you need to pay attention to your website’s architecture. This post will look at how you can improve your website structure.
How can I improve my website’s structure?
These are just some of the most important considerations for website structure. Of course, SEO is a complex and ever-changing field, but by following these basic principles, you can make sure your website is as optimised as possible.
Titles and descriptions
Make sure that your website’s titles and descriptions are keyword-rich and informative. This will help search engines understand your site and index it accordingly.
For more information on Website Titles, check out this blog post.
Headings and subheadings
Using headings and subheadings to break your content into smaller, keyword-rich chunks. This will make your content easier to read and digest and help search engines find and index your content more effectively.
Keyword-rich URLs
When creating URLs for your website, use keywords that accurately describe the page’s content. This will help search engines understand the subject matter of the page, and it will also assist users in finding the page more easily.
Keyword-rich anchor text
Anchor text is the text that appears when you click on a link. When creating anchor text, use keywords that accurately describe the page you’re linking to. This will help search engines understand the page and index it accordingly.
Use structured data
Structured data is a way of formatting your content so that search engines can easily understand it. As a result, using structured data can help search engines index your content more effectively, leading to higher rankings and more traffic.
Structure data types
One thing to understand is that there are different structured data types. The most common type is microdata, a set of HTML tags that provide information about the page’s content. For example, microdata can mark people, organisations, events, and more.
Another structured data type is RDFa, which stands for Resource Description Framework in Attributes. RDFa is a way to mark-up data to be machine-readable. This data type is often used for recipes, product reviews, and location-based information.
Finally, there is schema.org, a collection of schemas used by Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines. Schema.org is the most comprehensive and well-supported structured data standard, so it’s a good idea to use it if possible.
Correct Formatting
Once you’ve decided which structured data to use, the next step is to format your data correctly. This includes adding the proper HTML tags and ensuring your information is properly organised. For example, if you’re marking a person, you’ll want to have the person’s name, photo, URL, and other relevant information.
Once your data is formatted correctly, you can add it to your web pages. The best way to add this is to use a tool like the Google Structured Data Markup Helper, which will walk you through the process of adding structured data to your pages.
Use H1 tags to label important sections of web pages
If you’re looking to optimise your website for search engines, one of the most important things you can do is use H1 tags to label essential sections of your site.
H1 tags are HTML tags used to indicate the most crucial heading on a page. In fact, search engines use tags to help determine the structure and hierarchy of your content, so it’s essential to use them thoughtfully.
Here are a few tips for using H1 tags on your website:
Use H1 tags for the main heading on each site page.
Use H2 tags for secondary headings and H3 tags for tertiary headings.
Make sure your H1 tags are unique and descriptive and avoid using generic terms like “Welcome to our website.”
Use keyword-rich H1 tags to help improve your website’s search engine optimisation.
H1 tags are used to label essential sections of your website. They’re helpful for visitors, and they’re also beneficial for SEO.
Keep Navigation Depth Shallow
The average user won’t click more than three times to find what they’re looking for on your website. Users will become frustrated and leave if your navigation menu is too deep. Keep your navigation depth shallow to ensure a positive user experience and keep people on your site.
What is navigation depth? It’s the number of clicks it takes a user to get from your homepage to the desired content. The ideal navigation depth is three clicks or less. Anything more than that is too deep.
There are several ways to keep your navigation depth shallow. First, look at your website’s structure. Is there any way to simplify it? Maybe you can consolidate some pages or move some content around.
Improve your website structure with Breadcrumbs
Another way to keep your navigation depth shallow is by using breadcrumbs. Breadcrumbs are links at the top of a page that show the user their location in the site’s hierarchy. They look something like this:
Home > Blog > SEO > Keep Navigation Depth Shallow
Breadcrumbs improve usability by reducing the number of clicks necessary to get to a specific piece of content and by making it easy for users to backtrack if they get lost.
Finally, don’t forget about site searches. Site search is a powerful tool that allows users to find what they’re looking for without clicking through your navigation menu. A site search is a must if you have a lot of content.
Keeping your navigation depth shallow is essential for SEO and providing a positive user experience. Users can readily find what they’re looking for by simplifying your website’s structure and using breadcrumbs and site search.
Use internal linking
If you’re looking to improve your site’s SEO and website structure, one of the best things you can do is to use internal linking. You can help search engines improve their understanding of your site’s structure and content by linking to other relevant pages. In addition, internal linking can help increase your site’s pages’ visibility.
When choosing which pages to link to, it’s important to select high-quality, relevant pages. Linking to poorly written pages or not pertinent to your site’s theme will not only hurt your SEO but can also frustrate your visitors.
If you’re unsure where to start, look at your site’s navigation menu. Chances are, there are already a few internal links in there. You can also look for opportunities to link to other pages within your site’s content. For example, if you’re writing a blog about a new product, you could link to the product’s page within the post.
By adding internal links to your site, you can help improve your site’s SEO and make it easier for visitors to find the information they’re looking for.
Optimise images
Including the keyword in your image file names in the alt text is helpful. This will help search engines understand your images and index them accordingly.
If you’re not optimising your images for SEO, you’re missing out on a crucial opportunity to improve your website’s search ranking.
Specifically, images can be an integral component of any website, and they can have a significant impact on your SEO. For example, Google’s image search is one of the most popular features on the web and can be a substantial source of website traffic.
There are some things you can do to optimise your images for SEO:
Use descriptive filenames and alt text
When uploading an image to your website, you should give it a descriptive filename and alt text. These elements are essential for image optimisation.
The filename is the name of the image file, and the alt text is the text that appears in place of the image if it can’t be displayed. Both the filename and the alt text should be descriptive and keyword-rich.
Making sure images are the correct size
An image that is too small or too large can impact your website’s load time, hurting your SEO. So make sure your images are the right size before you upload them to your website.
Compress your images
The compression of images is an integral part of image optimisation. When you compress a picture, you reduce its file size, which can help improve your website’s load time.
There are several ways to compress images:
- Use an image compression tool like ImageOptim.
- Saving images in a format that supports compression, like JPEG or Google’s WebP format, in lossless or lossy compression.
- Use a content delivery network (CDN). For example, at Springboard Digital Group, we use the Cloudflare platform.
- Add images to your sitemap. For Google to index your photos, you must add them to your sitemap. A sitemap is an XML file that contains a list of all the pages and resources on your website.
You can use a sitemap generator tool to create a sitemap for your website. Once you’ve generated the sitemap, you can upload it to your server and submit it to Google.
Use responsive images
Responsive images are images that adjust their size to fit the size of the device they’re being viewed on. This is important for SEO because it helps ensure your images are displayed correctly on all devices.
You can use the srcset attribute to define multiple sizes for an image and let the browser choose the best size to display, using the sizes attribute to specify the width of an image in different situations.
For more information on responsive images, check out this article from Google.
Robots.txt
One of the most critical files on your website is your “robots.txt” file. This file tells search engines how they should crawl your site.
You can use your “robots.txt” file to control which pages on your site are crawled by search engine bots and which pages are left alone.
For example, if you have a “members only” area on your website, you can use your “robots.txt” file to inform search engines not to crawl those pages.
A robots.txt file is a text file that alerts web robots, generally from a search engine, which pages on your website to crawl and which to ignore.
You can use a robots.txt file to:
Block all web robots from all pages on your site
Allow all web robots complete access to all pages on your site
Block all web robots from specific pages on your site
Allow certain web robots to access certain pages on your site
A vital thing to remember about robots.txt files is that they are a courtesy to web robots and are not enforceable. Just because you tell a web robot not to crawl a particular page doesn’t mean it will listen!
Site Maps
Sitemaps are an essential part of SEO. They assist search engines in finding and indexing your pages, making them more likely to appear in search results.
There are two common types of sitemaps: XML sitemaps and HTML sitemaps. XML sitemaps are designed for search engines, while HTML sitemaps are designed for users.
XML sitemaps are the most crucial type of sitemap. They tell search engines when your last updated pages are and how often they change. This helps search engines index your pages more accurately.
HTML sitemaps are designed for users. They help users find the information they’re looking for on your website.
Creating a sitemap
To create a sitemap, you can use a sitemap generator tool. These tools will generate a sitemap for you automatically. Once you have made your sitemap, you must submit it to search engines. You can do this using Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools.
Sitemaps are a vital part of SEO. They help search engines index your pages accurately and help users find the information they’re looking for. Use a sitemap generator tool to create your sitemap, and then submit it to search engines using Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console, a free service from Google, can help you track your website’s performance in search results.
It also helps you find and fix any errors your site might have.
Here are some ways you can use Google Search Console to improve your SEO:
- Submit your sitemap.
- Identify and fix crawl errors.
- Monitor your website’s search traffic.
- Optimise your website for specific keywords.
- Disavow bad links.
If you’re not already using Google Search Console, now is the time to start. It is a handy tool to help you improve your website’s SEO.
Keep Your Site Fresh
An essential thing you can do to improve your site’s SEO and website structure is to keep your content fresh.
If you have a blog site, post new articles regularly. Likewise, post new stories often if you have a news section on your site.
Search engines love fresh content, and you’ll be helping your site rank higher in the search results by keeping your site updated.
Do you need help with SEO?
If you like this Blog Post on SEO website structure and need help with your website, Springboard Digital can help you.
We can work with you to understand your business and customers, develop a compelling strategy that search engines will love, and help you achieve your business goals.
Contact Springboard Digital today to learn more about our SEO link-build services.
