Website Architecture and Navigation
Optimizing for search engines and user experience.
Would you like to know what one thing that impacts your website more than any other? Have you ever wondered what is the first element Google looks at on a webpage? Do you want to know what one element shapes the user experience on your site more than any other? The answer is site architecture.
Your site architecture has tremendous impact on how well site visitors and search engines understand your site. Your site architecture is the foundation of your website. It can literally make or break your site. It can create clear paths for information and ensure that there is purpose to every step in the user journey.
Principals covered in this course:
Information Architecture:
The information architecture of a website is the way that the content has been categorized. It is the framework used to present the information. This is most clearly evidenced by the URL structure of every page. This will be a significant focus of this course.
Navigation:
Navigation is the way you present the structure of your website to visitors. Your site navigation goes a long way to defining the user experience on your site. However, because navigation consists of link structure, and links pass page rank, the navigation elements of your website also influence what the search engines will see as your most important pages.
What’s The Big Deal About Site Architecture?
Your site architecture is the structure of your content based on URL structure. It is your opportunity to clearly demonstrate to search engines the depth and breadth of content on your site. But, site architecture is also a flowchart that defines the paths of user experience and flow of PageRank through your site.
Site architecture is where data structure meets user journey. You really can't say that one defines the other. They both require unique and important considerations.
OK… SO, WHAT EXACTLY IS SITE ARCHITECTURE?
The Three Components of Site Architecture:
Information Architecture:
The information architecture of a website is the way that the content has been categorized. It is the framework used to present the information. This is most clearly evidenced by the URL structure of every page. This will be a significant focus of this course.
Navigation:
Navigation is the way you present the structure of your website to visitors. Your site navigation goes a long way to defining the user experience on your site. However, because navigation consists of link structure, and links pass page rank, the navigation elements of your website also influence what the search engines will see as your most important pages.
Technical Architecture:
Technical architecture, while very important, is not the focus of this course. Technical architecture is a very deep subject that deals with the coding languages, technologies, mobile integration, CMS platforms, modules/plug-ins, API’s, etc… The number of potential combinations of these is limitless. Optimizing the technical architecture is the focus of the next course in this series, “Technical Optimization – Step-by-step page specific and site-wide optimization techniques”.
In this course you will be taken through a process that is guaranteed to produce a sitemap for an information architecture that will outperform all of your top competitors. This course will help you understand how to build navigation that will streamline your user experience, support your conversion funnels and optimize your link flow. Your path to success online is about to become much more clear.
LET'S GET STARTED!
Next In the next lesson we will dive deeper into exactly How Site Architecture Effects Search Rankings and User Experience
Optimizing for search engines and user experience.
Would you like to know what one thing that impacts your website more than any other? Have you ever wondered what is the first element Google looks at on a webpage? Do you want to know what one element shapes the user experience on your site more than any other? The answer is site architecture.
Your site architecture has tremendous impact on how well site visitors and search engines understand your site. Your site architecture is the foundation of your website. It can literally make or break your site. It can create clear paths for information and ensure that there is purpose to every step in the user journey.
Principals covered in this course:
Information Architecture:
The information architecture of a website is the way that the content has been categorized. It is the framework used to present the information. This is most clearly evidenced by the URL structure of every page. This will be a significant focus of this course.
Navigation:
Navigation is the way you present the structure of your website to visitors. Your site navigation goes a long way to defining the user experience on your site. However, because navigation consists of link structure, and links pass page rank, the navigation elements of your website also influence what the search engines will see as your most important pages.
What’s The Big Deal About Site Architecture?
Your site architecture is the structure of your content based on URL structure. It is your opportunity to clearly demonstrate to search engines the depth and breadth of content on your site. But, site architecture is also a flowchart that defines the paths of user experience and flow of PageRank through your site.
Site architecture is where data structure meets user journey. You really can't say that one defines the other. They both require unique and important considerations.
OK… SO, WHAT EXACTLY IS SITE ARCHITECTURE?
The Three Components of Site Architecture:
Information Architecture:
The information architecture of a website is the way that the content has been categorized. It is the framework used to present the information. This is most clearly evidenced by the URL structure of every page. This will be a significant focus of this course.
Navigation:
Navigation is the way you present the structure of your website to visitors. Your site navigation goes a long way to defining the user experience on your site. However, because navigation consists of link structure, and links pass page rank, the navigation elements of your website also influence what the search engines will see as your most important pages.
Technical Architecture:
Technical architecture, while very important, is not the focus of this course. Technical architecture is a very deep subject that deals with the coding languages, technologies, mobile integration, CMS platforms, modules/plug-ins, API’s, etc… The number of potential combinations of these is limitless. Optimizing the technical architecture is the focus of the next course in this series, “Technical Optimization – Step-by-step page specific and site-wide optimization techniques”.
In this course you will be taken through a process that is guaranteed to produce a sitemap for an information architecture that will outperform all of your top competitors. This course will help you understand how to build navigation that will streamline your user experience, support your conversion funnels and optimize your link flow. Your path to success online is about to become much more clear.
LET'S GET STARTED!
Next In the next lesson we will dive deeper into exactly How Site Architecture Effects Search Rankings and User Experience
