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Since the beginning of Search Engine Optimisation practice, finding the perfect and best website structure has always been one of the primary questions of any SEO practitioner. Indexing and ease of crawling are directly impacted by a site’s architecture, hence having a solid architecture is paramount in laying the foundation for future SEO Growth.
The idea of Flat Architecture and the Theme of Pyramids
A. Flat Website Structure
Definition and Characteristics:
A flat website structure is characterized by a shallow hierarchy with minimal or no subfolders. All pages are typically accessible from the homepage with a few clicks, and there are few if any, levels of nesting. Each page is considered equally important and accessible without navigating through multiple levels of categorization.
Advantages and Disadvantages of SEO: Advantages:
Simplified navigation: Users can easily find content without navigating through multiple levels of hierarchy.
Efficient crawling: Search engine bots can quickly discover and index all pages due to the lack of depth in the structure. Disadvantages:
Lack of organization: Content may lack categorization and hierarchy, making it challenging for users to find related content.
Limited keyword targeting: Without clear categorization, it may be difficult to target specific keywords effectively across the website.
Examples of Websites Using Flat Structure:
Personal blogs: Blogs often adopt a flat structure, where all blog posts are accessible directly from the homepage.
Small business websites: Websites for small businesses with a limited number of pages may opt for a flat structure for simplicity.
B. Hierarchical Website Structure
Definition and Characteristics:
A hierarchical website structure is characterized by a clear hierarchy of pages organized into categories and subcategories. Content is grouped logically, with parent pages containing related subpages. Navigation typically involves navigating through multiple levels of categorization to access specific content.
Advantages and Disadvantages of SEO: Advantages:
Improved organization: Content is logically categorized, making it easier for users to navigate and find relevant information.
Targeted keyword optimization: Pages can be optimized for specific keywords based on their category and subcategory. Disadvantages:
Increased complexity: Navigating through multiple levels of hierarchy may be cumbersome for users, especially on mobile devices.
Potential for orphaned pages: Pages buried deep within the hierarchy may receive less visibility and traffic if not properly linked.
Examples of Websites Using Hierarchical Structure:
E-commerce websites: Online stores often adopt a hierarchical structure, with products organized into categories and subcategories.
News websites: News websites typically organize content into sections such as politics, sports, and entertainment, each with its subcategories.
C. Silo Website Structure
Definition and Characteristics:
A silo website structure organizes content into themed silos or topic clusters, with each silo focusing on a specific topic or keyword. Pages within each silo are interlinked extensively, creating a strong internal linking structure. This approach helps establish topical relevance and authority for targeted keywords.
Advantages and Disadvantages of SEO: Advantages:
Enhanced topical relevance: Silos help establish clear topical themes, making it easier for search engines to understand the website’s focus.
Improved internal linking: Extensive internal linking within silos strengthens the authority of pages and improves crawlability. Disadvantages:
Maintenance complexity: Maintaining a silo structure requires ongoing effort to ensure proper organization and internal linking.
Potential for keyword cannibalization: Without careful planning, competing silos may cannibalize each other’s keyword rankings.
Examples of Websites Using Silo Structure:
Niche authority websites: Websites focused on specific topics or industries often adopt a silo structure to establish authority and relevance.
Educational websites: Websites offering courses or resources on various subjects may organize content into silos based on topics or subjects.
D. Hybrid Website Structure
Definition and Characteristics:
A hybrid website structure combines elements of flat, hierarchical, and silo structures to create a customized approach tailored to the website’s needs. It may involve using a flat structure for some sections, a hierarchical structure for others, and implementing silos for targeted keyword optimization.
Advantages and Disadvantages of SEO: Advantages:
Flexibility: A hybrid structure allows website owners to adapt their approach based on the nature of the content and SEO goals.
Customization: Website owners can leverage the strengths of different structures to optimize user experience and SEO performance. Disadvantages:
Complexity: Managing multiple structures within the same website may increase complexity and require careful planning.
Consistency challenges: Ensuring consistency across different sections of the website may be challenging with a hybrid approach.
Examples of Websites Using Hybrid Structure:
Large corporate websites: Corporate websites may adopt a hybrid structure, using a hierarchical approach for product pages, a flat structure for blog content, and silos for targeted landing pages.
Content-rich websites: Websites with diverse content types and purposes may benefit from a hybrid structure that combines different approaches to optimize user experience and SEO performance.
Analyzing different types of website structures is essential for optimizing SEO performance and user experience. Each structure has its advantages and disadvantages, and website owners should carefully consider their goals and content needs when determining the best approach for their website. By understanding the characteristics and examples of each structure, website owners can make informed decisions to create a solid SEO foundation.
THE IDEA OF FLAT ARCHITECTURE AND THE THEME OF PYRAMIDS
Back in the day finding the perfect site architecture was a popular trend among SEOS. Out of the many proposed models, two of them were particularly made famous by Brett Tabke, the founder of Pubcon.
Here is the article link > “Successful Site in 12 Months with Google Alone – 26 Steps to 15k a Day – A Modern Guide to Content Marketing”
Here’s an excerpt from Tabke’s writing.
“Arrange the site in a logical manner with directory names hitting the top keywords you wish to hit.
You can also go the other route and just throw everything in the root (this is rather controversial, but it’s been producing good long-term results across many engines).”
The reference about creating directory names in the root folder is what we refer to as category pages. The basic idea is to create categories(or directories) on the most important keywords you want to rank on. The pages on the lower level focus on specific long-tail keywords and topics. All of them are linked in a logical manner thus creating semantic relationships between each topic.
There are two particular types of Site Architecture that were derived from this,
- Flat Site Structure
- Hierarchical or Deep Site Structure
Flat Site Structure
In a flat site structure, the web pages are arranged in such a manner that all the web pages on the site are not more than 3 clicks away from the home page. This is preferable in terms of crawl depth and it enables Google to index your website faster. Also, it accounts for a relatively good user experience.
Deep Site Structure
In a deep site structure, the web pages are arranged in terms of hierarchical categories. The categories constitute of most important keywords or topics. The pages in lower levels focus on exploring specific and long-tail keywords. The creating scope for creating semantic relationships between topics and providing greater coverage on each individual topic.
What does John Muller have to say about it?
“In general I’d be careful to avoid setting up a situation where normal website navigation doesn’t work. So we should be able to crawl from one URL to any other URL on your website just by following the links on the page.”
Mueller further expanded on that idea in an important way:
“If that’s not possible then we lose a lot of context. So if we’re only seeing these URLs through your sitemap file then we don’t really know how these URLs are related to each other and it makes it really hard for us to be able to understand how relevant is this piece of content in the context of your website. So that’s one thing to… watch out for.”
John Muller’s response takes a dual stance in this regard. While flat architecture definitely helps in improving crawl efficiency, a deep site structure helps in creating deeper context which helps google identify semantic relationships between each which may influence how they are ranked.
So what is the Best Type of Site Architecture
So the problem is pretty simple. On one hand, we have the problem of improving crawl efficiency and on the other, we have the problem of creating context and semantic relationships in our content.
So perhaps the best approach is to follow a deep site architecture and simultaneously maintain an HTML sitemap.
An HTML Sitemap is a page on your site which contain all the URLs on your website. This way not only we are creating out of our URL structure, but we are also maintaining minimum crawl depth and hence improving website crawlability.
How to find our Site Architecture
- Open Screaming Frog
- Run a Crawl of your Website with the following configuration.
- Open Visulization and Create a Crawl Tree Graph
- From the Crawl Tree Graph, you will be able to visualize your current site architecture.
Flat site structure sample
