When we visit a website, the first thing that catches our attention is the layout and how visually appealing it is. The use of varied color palettes and graphics that are eye catching and pleasing to watch and interact with nearly guarantee a longer visitor engagement with the site. And when subpages (web pages that aren’t part of the main page but are linked to it and to other pages) of a website are easier to navigate, you have a great website structure.
HOW IS A FUNCTIONAL WEBSITE STRUCTURE MADE AND PLANNED
A website typically consists of components like a:
- Header – where the site logo and sometimes the navigation bar is located.
- Navigation Bar – located at the bottom of the header, where typical options to navigate the site include option tabs like Home, About, Contact, Products, etc. Sometimes each tab in the header bar may drop out a huge menu once clicked.
- Sliders, Crawlers and Pop ups – these are the extra, visually arresting segments of the home page (the main page of the site) where information or extra tabs to the sitemap are present. Sometimes it displays information and other times it asks for consent.
- Web pages – the different pages of the site in addition to the home page. The different web pages can be bundled into the sitemap which is like a glossary of all the web pages.
- Content – content is king and no matter how flashy the website, if the website content isn’t beneficial or helpful, there is no point in having a site.
- Footer – located at the bottom of the page where tabs such as privacy policy, social media accounts, sitemap are located.
HOW CAN THE EXISTING STRUCTURE BE IMPROVED TO GET AHEAD IN RANKINGS
Keeping all the above mentioned things in mind, they can be improved upon as information and SEO principles at work are in a state of constant change. For instance:
- Remember content being king? Content will always be the undisputed champion when it comes to site improvement. Keeping the quality and quantity of content updated with the relevant keyword phrases and by devoting a webpage to each keyword phrase will help. For example, a site might sell customized mobile phone covers for a particular brand but focussing on a color or a model like “customized crystal phone cover for Huawei Y9” will narrow down the search. Having the keyword phrases be searched for in the URLs and headers will boost the site’s rankings.
- Updating the content keeps it fresh and relevant along with the keyword phrases it uses. An updated site ranks highly for relevancy and keeping it updated regularly on a set schedule will keep it on the higher rungs for longer.
- Keeping the metadata updated is very important as it is present in every web page of a website and contains information about the contents of your site (you might recognize it as the number of alphanumeric variables that are present in a URL when you jump between web pages) This type of data is pretty much preloaded by the developers of the website but it needs to be updated as changes come into the web page. Up to date changes in the three different types of metadata like Title, Description and Keyword will again keep your website in the forefront of search engines.
- Having descriptive links while using the keywords phrases instead of the de rigeur “click here” not only aids the SEO chances of the website, it also provides people with visual and other physical challenges with ease in doing so. For example, using “Fortune 500 listed companies for 2020” will improve the ranking of the site even though it might not have any connection to the site. Remember that “click here” tab has no search engine value beyond its URL. and another additional point to keep in mind is that the higher the number of links on a webpage, the greater its earning capacity.
- Describing the multimedia content on the website using Alt tags as they allow the search engines to locate the pages especially for those with visual or physical challenges.
ARE THERE ANY EXAMPLES OF GREAT WEBSITE STRUCTURES?
There are tons of examples for fantastic website structures and many of them fall under the ecommerce category as anyone with online shopping experience will tell that specifying any product to the nth degree is very common there. Some examples are:
- Grammarly – this is an indispensable tool for the bloggers and writers. The use of a clutter free background with a prominent, eye catching static button makes its interface pretty easy to use.
- Hubspot – scrolling down on the website shows a simplistic grid that is easy to understand and doesnt hurt the eyes while inspiring individuals with a thought towards entrepreneurship
- Shopify – a prime example of a website with lots of white space and simple organization which is great for those who are time starved.
- Asana– another prime example where the use of lots of white space above the fold with no scrolling required is pretty straightforward to use . Extra information can be obtained by scrolling down to view more of the presentation offered.
ARE THERE ANY VARIATIONS OF WEBSITE STRUCTURES?
There are many kinds of website structures like the Linear structure (where the web pages are linked in a sequence), Tree structure (which is used commonly in corporate settings and where all of the pages are usually organized around a home page) Network linked structure (where each page has a connection to each other and often thought of the most complicated of all structures) but the best and most widely used of all is the Hybrid Website Structure, where all the webpages are linked via the different website structures. The links may be sequential or hierarchical and thus provides businesses and small sites a better option than the other three aforementioned ones.
Having a great website structure is key to having a thriving and highly ranked website which will in turn keep visitors coming back for more.