Site Structure - The Hidden SEO Strategy

Site structure is an important, and often overlooked aspect of Search Engine Optimization. We are gaining more and more clients who come to us right after having their website rebuilt, who are dissatisfied with the performance of the site. Working on those sites, after someone has built them without taking SEO into consideration, is much more difficult than optimizing a site from the ground up.

The site structure consists of the coding type (HTML, or dynamic coding), the relationship of pages to one another, the category organization, and page topical focus. These are things that are at the very heart of good site development, but which don’t get the attention they need as often as they should. This is partly because web designers often just put the site together as the business owner suggests, while the business owner (lacking experience) has no idea the kind of difference good structure can make to either people, or search engines.

A good site structure will allow easy optimization of key facets of the site. It will lead logically from one area of the site to another, and each page will have a purpose that is distinctive and focused. Categories will be logically defined, with room for easy growth if that is a long term factor.

When we come into the game late, we find that many of the structural elements in an existing site limit the degree to which it can be optimized. Short of rebuilding the site, the site owner is left with a site which will never perform as well as it would have if it had been done right to begin with.

The key point here is, that two sites may look identical, but just because of the type of coding and structure they used, one may be well optimized, and another not. Many designers feel that to bring in an SEO expert early on will stifle their design creativity - this is an utter myth. SEO experts who feel that design must take second place to optimization have also got it wrong, as much as designers who feel that design must always take precident.

When it is done right, good optimization is possible with almost any site appearance. It is just a matter of achieving the appearance in SEO friendly ways. When SEO is a factor throughout the process, the results are more cost effective both in the short term (it costs less to build a site with good SEO in mind than it does to build a site, then optimize later), and in the long term (because it can be optimized more completely, money is saved on marketing, permanently).

Good site structure follows the “people first” rule. Optimizing well for search engines allows people to find what they want in the site in a more intuitive manner also, which increases conversions within the site. A double bonus - after all, if you get more traffic, you also want to get more buyers from that traffic. When it is done right, there is never a question of SEO harming the site use. In fact, it enhances it.

Considering issues of easy optimization from the first design concept helps to maximize revenue potentials for the long term, while also decreasing the cost of getting the site off the ground. Win-win for the business owner.