Before planning out your website structure we need to understand what the your websites high level goals are.
Everything on the website or on the web pages needs to help achieve that goal – it might be generating sales, getting leads, show the new product we have – what the business needs from your website design.
Then you need to consider the type of content on the website that are going to help achieve these goals
Why is a website structure important?
Planning your websites structure is crucial when creating a website.
You need to know what you are going to build to enable you to devote the resources to it to build a website – time and money.
Would you attempt to build a house without a plan? I doubt it – the same is true for your website – planning a website properly will save you time and money.
Having a good website structure is essential for your users to find what they want and for google to see what your website is about and to rank it – it helps google find what your most important information is.
Minor pages should link to your websites main pages (cornerstone content) on a subject – they should be added to categories and have tags.
What tools do you need to plan a website structure?
You can simply use a pen and paper, maybe some sticky notes or a simple program such as Notebook on a computer – whatever suits you best.
Identify the needs of your website – the brief
This is where the outline of the website starts.
You can make it as long and complicated as you wish but I prefer to keep things simple.
You need to get the ideas of the stakeholders – the people who have an interest in the website – if it is just you that is fine but there may be others – the marketing manager, the operations manager etc – all their imputs should be sought.
Brain storm at a meeting to gather ideas – what type of content is crucial, what type of content would be nice to have, what actions do you want the users to perform – contact you by phone, visit you, fill out a form etc – these csan vary depending upon your business needs. If you can ask customers or potential customers – what do they want/expect to find on your website
Think about the user experience
What are your competition doing?
Google the keywords that you want your website to be found for and find the top websites.
Have a look at the structure they have and the type of content they are using.
If they are ranking on the 1st page of google they must be doing something right.
They may give you a different perspective on what was gathered from your initial brain storming session above.
Reorganise The Structure With Your Sites Visitors In Mind
Try to limit clutter as much as possible – try to think about the main menu having 5-7 elements – you don’t want people to be overwhelmed when they come to your website – you do not want them to be asking themselves ‘where do I look’
Typical pages might include
Home
Contact
About Us
Team
Locations
Locations 1
Locations 2
Locations 3
Services
Services
Services
Services
Products
Products 1
Products 2
Products 3
Rates / Pricing
Free Offer / Sign up / Call To Action
Blog
Categories
Posts
Privacy Policy
Cookie Policy
Terms and conditions
Legal
Site map
Site search
404 Page
Organise the content so that it makes sense / is logical to user – organise page titles on sticky notes to form a site map.
You have a very short space of time to answer your visitors 2 main questions:
- Is this for me? This decision is visual – image important
- Can I trust you? – scrolling down does your website look professional – are there testimonials – who is saying nice things about you?
Make it easy for visitors to find what they want and make it clear what you want them to do.
How Can We help You With Your Website Structure?
JSP Web Design can plan out your website structure to make sure that your sites visitors easily find what they are looking for, that your website achieves it’s goal and the it is ideally set up to help Google and other search engines suitably rank your website for the keywords you want it to be found for and helps with your SEO.
