How to make the right structure of the site

The success of the site largely depends on how well it will be made, and the most important factor is to create the right structure of the site. The structure is the foundation of any site, the better it is thought out and implemented, the easier it is to use the site. A high-quality structure is the convenience of information search, saving for search engines their budgets for crawling (faster indexing), reliability of the resource. In this article we will analyze the main nuances of creating the correct site structure, describe what you should pay attention to. Let’s analyze the main problems in developing the right structure.

What is the site structure? – In fact, this is the exact scheme according to which the site will be implemented, the development of a visual structure will help to visualize the future site. Competent development of the site and its structure is, first of all, the convenience of navigation on the site, as well as its attachments. It is important not to make a very deep structure, the ideal option is 3 levels of nesting, in other words, the visitor should be able to get to any page of the site in three clicks.

Each site is created according to a specially developed plan, it necessarily takes into account all the nuances of the structure. According to the plan, the location of the pages relative to each other is indicated. Usually it is visualized by means of a graphical scheme in which the main sections are represented by blocks, the connection of blocks is shown by arrows. The structure can be both internal and external. The first one consists of categories, sections of the site and the relation of different pages to them. The internal structure is the most difficult to implement correctly. As for the external structure, it is nothing more than a page layout on which different elements of the page are distributed in separate blocks. The final scheme strongly depends on the purpose of creating a web resource, as well as its specifics, that is, on what task the site should solve. The more complex the site, the more complex its structure, for example, for a one-page site there is no need to develop a special structure, because all the information will be placed on the 1st page. Creation of an information site, corporate site or online store requires a really complex structure.

It is important to note! After the site is fully indexed, the ready-made structure of pages and subsections should not be changed, if you do this, some of the pages may fall out of the Top, as a result, traffic may drop significantly.

Main types of structure and requirements

No matter how complex and unique your site is, there are requirements for the structure and content that should be followed in any case. Among the main requirements are the following:

  • Visitors should understand the logic of the site, and it is better that it was on an intuitive level. A logically thought-out structure is a quick search for the necessary information, easy memorization of the path to the necessary data, the impossibility of getting confused during transitions.
  • Users should receive comprehensive information. Each page that opens during the transition should correspond to the name of the section, and the information provided on the page should answer all the user’s questions.
  • The content placed in accordance with the structure should also be of high quality and unique, all the requirements of the CEO should be taken into account. This will gradually improve the ranking of the site in search engines.
  • The material placed inside the structure should be easy, clear and useful. In addition, it should captivate and provoke the user to find other materials on the site.

These are the criteria that should be taken into account when developing sites of any complexity, and their observance makes the site easy to navigate, useful and interesting. As for the types of structure, there are four main ones:

  • Tree structure is a mass of levels and subdivisions with branches. This is the most popular structure today.
  • A sieve or network structure is similar to a tree structure, but at the same time it is designed so that the visitor can jump from the 1st or 2nd level page to the deep level page and vice versa.
  • Linearly branched structure is usually a chain of transitions, often with the right to choose. This is the best choice for small web services.
  • Linear structure is essentially a chain. This structure is most often chosen for one-page sites and business card sites.

High-quality websites most often have a tree structure, because it allows to implement almost any solution and at the same time leaves the site intuitive.

The most common mistakes

There are some mistakes that are made most often when developing the structure of a web resource:

  • Incorrectly specified filter order. For example, a user searches for car tires online, if the content manager understands the topic, he understands that the user is primarily interested in what season the tires are for, diameter, width, tread pattern, etc. If he does not understand, he will simply violate the order of the product parameters.
  • Duplicate pages. Often when you create a website the same information may have different URLs, the result of such an error may be sanctions imposed on the site.
  • Category names are not specified. If there are no names, both the visitor and the search engines will not be able to evaluate the information on the web resource. And duplication of categories will lead either to identical information or will not reflect the essence of the page.

Basic rules for creating a competent structure

If you adhere to the basic rules listed below, you can be sure that you will make the structure of the site exactly right. The basic rules include:

  • URLs should be clear to the visitor, and even better, they should be easy to remember.
  • The most important services should be made visible, and at the same time it is important that they are located within 1 click from the main page.
  • As mentioned above, there should be no more than 3 levels of complexity.
  • It is important to hide service pages from search engine crawlers.
  • It is important to ensure the indexing of pages, for this you need to make an xml-map.
  • It is important to follow the logic, the way to find the necessary information should be clear, for example: Home page – Section – Subsection – Article.
  • Before creating a structure, be sure to analyze the competitors’ sites, especially from the Top (you can even choose a ready-made site layout). This way you will be able to avoid some of the mistakes.
  • It is important to think over the linking within the site itself, it can significantly speed up indexing.
  • It is important that the visitor can quickly return to the Home page.
  • Try to use human-like addresses or CNC, so you will help search engines to determine the relevance.
  • It is important that there are no cyclic pages with a lot of repetitions.

These simple tips will help you create a competent site structure.

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