What does a good SEO website structure look like?

What is an SEO Website Structure?

By SEO website structure, we mean the hierarchy between all available pages (urls) of a single domain. This website structure is often shown in the form of a graphic representation, using a clear categorization of all pages.

How does the website hierarchy contribute to SEO?

A good hierarchy is necessary for search engines and users of the website, because the speed at which information can be interpreted and found is higher with a well-structured website. It therefore contributes to both the interpretation of information by search engines and how users navigate the website. Both the user's behavior on the website and how crawlers can interpret the website contribute to better optimization for SEO and UXO.

In short: categorization helps the end user reach their goal on the website more quickly.

Erroneous classification is difficult to interpret

An incorrect website structure is best compared to a mailman delivering his mail to a street where the numbers are randomly distributed. In this comparison, you can consider the mailman as a search engine crawler or one of the end users of the website: it will take a long time for the mailman to deliver the mail and reach his goal. It also takes a long time for the mailman to get used to this layout. In the case of the website, it requires more effort for the end user and the crawler to see connections and this affects the assessment of both.

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Introduction to SEO Website Structuring

Before you can set up a good website structure, it's important to understand the following: search engines are stricter when it comes to categorization and, in many cases, take the information served literally. In particular, this relates to how the 'value' of a page is estimated. This value is created, among other things, by structuring and connecting pages via links such as a hyperlink.

Hierarchical Levels

Top level pages

Pages that are positioned at the same level are strictly interpreted by search engines as of the same value. Of course, this does not include what content the pages contain and how the behavior of users on the pages influences the value. Pages that are at the same level are therefore seen as equal.

Underlying pages

Underlying pages are literally and figuratively secondary to all parent pages, which means that pages at this level are compared again and weighted by value (for the end user). By the way, here you take into account the fact that pages that are subordinate to another parent page are also compared to determine value via an algorithm. The more consistent the website structure, the better for SEO and navigability.

Case study: SEO for webshop urls

A less desirable SEO Structure: you see a structure of an online store above. The online store makes two mistakes, do you see which ones?

A correct SEO Structure: we've changed a few things for this website. Ladies and gentlemen are on equal footing. The jewelry category has been removed with the main reason that jackets, for example, are also not placed in the 'clothing' category, which makes the site more readable and logical.

Tips on website restructuring

The question whether restructuring the website is profitable. In all the processes taken so far to improve the website structure, the results of websites have grown significantly. The question isn't whether it's profitable, but whether you value the user experience enough because it helps them navigate faster. Indeed, the question of whether it is profitable is not testable for many companies and is therefore objectively unanswerable from an honest point of view.

Where do I start restructuring my website?

You would do well to set priorities for the company first: is it important to make a clear distinction between gender, for example, or do you see gender as a trait and not as a category? In that case, you can also label the item and remove “gender” from level 2.

Here, too, numbers can help you make a decision. Ask yourself or a specialized company such as Rootsteps: are people looking for a 'jacket' or 'women's jacket'? The answer is simple: at the moment, people are often looking for a coat in combination with gender. Then the advice (at least for SEO reasons) is to name this and also make this distinction in the website structure.

Rootsteps helps you optimize the seo structure of your website.

Rootsteps is a professional agency specialized in websites and website structures as discussed in this article. Categorization is essential and we are happy to show you how to maximize the effect of the website. Get in touch with us.

See also: new have a website created.

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