How to Create an SEO Friendly Website Structure

a good website structure turns out to play an important role in helping and making it easier for site visitors to find information quickly.

This can even make it easier for Google to identify which content is important and which is not.

For those of you who are optimizing a website for SEO, make sure you also pay attention to the site structure. Check out the following explanation to find out how to create an SEO friendly website structure.

What is Website Structure?

Website structure is the arrangement of important pages on the website. Usually the structure or architecture of this website will be seen from the main navigation or menu.

A good website structure will make the pages on the website to be connected to each other. Thus, visitors can experience a good user experience or user experience.

That way, visitors can feel a good user experience. Because visitors can easily find the information they need.

Apart from being important to users, a good web structure is also important for SEO optimization or Search Engine Optimization. Because, with a good website structure, Google bots will find it easier to browse your website pages. This also influences the ranking of website pages in search engines.

Website Structure Type

There are four kinds of web structures based on the use and purpose of building the website:

• Hierarchy. This type of website structure is the most common and preferred. The pages are arranged in a tree-like structure. Parent pages with more general/broad information are at the top of the structure. The parent page is then categorized into several child pages with more detailed information.
• linear. The structure of a sequence type website is the simplest. All information is arranged linearly. It can be from the most general to the most specific. It can also be alphabetical. This structure is suitable for educational or training websites. 
• Matrix. The matrix type website structure provides many relevant links for the user. With a variety of topics. Users are free to choose which link or page they want to visit next.
• network. This type of website structure is more dynamic than the others. With this type of structure, users can freely determine what link or page they want to visit next. Users can have their own search experience by utilizing the search feature.

8 Secrets an SEO Friendly Website Structure

There are several steps you need to take to create an SEO friendly website structure, namely:

1. Create a schematic design

A clear website design and page hierarchy are the main things that make a good website.

Map out all the content ideas that you want to include on your website in the form of a schematic design. Then, group all that content in a more general category. Then arrange everything so that they are interconnected. You can also use subcategories.

This process is called planning website design aka wireframe. Its function is to group content into more relevant categories based on content.

2. Pay Attention to the Links on the Homepage Page

Next, the way to create a website structure is to pay attention to the links that are related to the homepage.

In general, the homepage is located at the very top of the website structure. This means that the homepage is the first page accessed by website visitors. That's why you need to place some important page links to your website homepage.

The goal is to increase the chances of website visitors opening these important pages, and they can get information more easily too.

3. Clarify Navigation on the Website

In order to have a good website structure in SEO, you also need to make navigation clearer. 

There are two navigations that need to be owned by a website that has a good structure, namely: 

Menu

The menu is the most important navigational element and must be owned by a website structure.

Menus usually contain information and category pages contain a large amount of information. Usually this menu is located next to the logo or website name. 

Breadcrumbs

The next important navigation is breadcrumbs. Breadcrumbs are navigation which is no less important for creating a good website structure in SEO.

Breadcrumbs navigation usually contains links and is usually above the page title.

4. Use taxonomies

To make navigation more organized, use the taxonomies found in the CMS you use, such as WordPress. With taxonomies, you will be able to group content based on tags or categories which makes it easier for visitors to find articles with similar topics. Then, what's the difference between tags and categories?

A. Tags.

Tags are an unstructured way of grouping content. Through tags, you can show visitors if there are posts or other related products. That way, they can find other content they find interesting.

B. Category.

Categories are structured content groupings. In a website or blog, naturally there are several main or general categories that are determined.

Then, each category can be grouped again into various sub-categories below it.

5. Internal Links

Inserting internal links is something that cannot be missed if you want to create an SEO friendly website structure.

Internal links are directly related to content categorization and links to other related content.

Following is a further discussion of internal links for two types of websites:

Internal Links for Blogs

Here, planning is done in a similar way to how to arrange a wireframe as described in point number 1 earlier. That is, you first write down any broader or general topics, then make posts whose topics match this main topic. After that, add internal links to link the content with other related content.

Try to provide lots of relevant internal links to your important blog posts. So, visitors will not only stop on your important pages, but also on other related pages.

Internal Link for Online Shop

Internal links in online shops have a different way of working than those on blogs. In an online shop, you want the visitor to stay on one page, until the user makes a purchase. 

To do this, there are several tricks you can do:

• Links in product bundles that point to specific products.
• Links that direct visitors with “Things you might also like…”
• Links that link to the “Similar products” section.
• Links that link to the “Best seller products” or “It's cheaper to buy this product” section.

6. Information page and contact

If your contact information isn't up to date on your website, you probably don't have a website either.

Especially for business websites, not providing contact details such as phone number, email address and visiting address makes the whole brand appear shady at best.

A good website design makes it easy to include all important contact information at the bottom of all pages in the site's footer.

Including a custom contact page is also a great design choice for most websites.

Having a separate page detailing how to contact your business makes it very easy and intuitive for visitors to reach you.

7. Strong security

A good website structure must also pay attention to the security factor. Good security protects your site's content, as well as the privacy of your visitors.

This is especially important if you run a site that deals with sensitive user information, such as credit card numbers or personal data.

The choice of web hosting also plays a big role in your security. Always choose a secure and reputable web hosting provider.

Another way to ensure that your website is secure is to install an SSL certificate which encrypts your internet connection and protects any data transferred to and from your site.

8. Include links to social media accounts

Your online presence is more than just your website.

A good website not only links to multiple social media accounts but also pays attention to details.

Adding a social media feed to your website makes it easier for potential customers to ask questions and get to know you as a brand better.