The Best Guide to Structuring a Website in 2022

The Best Guide to Structuring a Website in 2022

Structuring a Website: A website is a collection of interconnected web pages containing content in the form of text, images, video, and other multimedia, typically related to a particular subject matter.

Websites can have any purpose.

Some are online stores; some provide information; some are simply for entertainment.

Website structure is important because it can make or break your site’s effectiveness.

This is because successful websites are structured with the user in mind. After all, if you don’t think about your users’ needs when designing your website then what’s the point?

Web content writers need to keep their readers’ flow in mind while structuring their site. It should be easy for readers to find what they’re looking for and navigate through different sections of the site without getting lost.

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How do users interact with well structured websites?

Structured websites are the most popular websites on the internet. They offer users a quick and easy way to find information.

For example, they allow users to easily navigate through the website and search for specific pages based on their needs, as well as provide them with a sense of security.

Users interact with structured websites in three different ways:

1. The user actively searches for something and is taken to a page that contains content related to their search.

2. The user selects a link from the menu or category that is relevant to their needs and they are taken to that page.

3. The user might be reading content while scrolling through the website.

How to Structure Your Website’s Content

Content is the foundation of your website. It is what drives your visitors to do whatever it is they’re looking for from your site. There are, of course, many different ways you can structure content on your site.

For example, some people will use a classic FAQ format where one page has a list of questions and answers about a topic in a question-and-answer format.

Other people might have different pages for each answer to the questions. But that’s not important, because the goal remains the same, no matter what.

Content organization can be done in many different ways, but it’s important for it to be well-organized so users can easily find the content they need.

With the onslaught of content being generated these days by consumers and businesses, it can be difficult for webmasters to create a clear hierarchy on their website’s homepage.

Design Principles for Good Web Design

Every design project has a goal to be achieved. It’s the designer’s job to identify the goal and create a functional, user-friendly design that will enable people to achieve it.

When designing a website, designers should use the F-shaped pattern as a guide for which sections of content should go where.

The F-shaped pattern suggests that one column is devoted to navigation and another for search, while the center column would contain content from those two areas.

Every design project has a goal to be achieved. It’s the designer’s job to identify the goal and create a functional, user-friendly design that will enable people to achieve it.

How should I structure my site navigation

Keep the most important links in your heading, such as categories, blog page and contacts. If you are not a big e-commerce website, mega menus are not for you.

Using a basic structure with your most important links can enhance your SEO and increase your traffic.

Visitors like things to be simple and want to find what they search for fast. If you manage to fullfil their needs, they will reward you with more time on site and less bounce rate.

Structure Your Categories and Sub Categories

Your categories are one of the most important elements on your website. If they are not set in the correct order, you will suffer big traffic losses.

The main page that visitors land when visit your website is always the home page. Once a visitor lands on it, they start analyzing your contents from top to bottom.

The moment they finish analyzing your home page and its contents they search for more, to see weather the website has what they are looking for.

Including a site navigation can be an easy way for them to interact with your website and find what they need. Keeping your categories and sub categories simple is another great way to help them.

What are categories?

Categories divide articles into different topics.

Categories are a way to narrow down your search by giving you a list of topics, and they’re also the single most important factor in determining how Google ranks your website.

This is because when people search for something like “business,” “entrepreneur,” or “life coach,” they’re not really looking for any one specific article, but for all articles on that topic.

What are sub categories?

Sub categories are a way to further structure and organize your content by putting each piece on its rightful place. Not only stores use categories for specific types of products, but also blogs do.

A sub category is the tiny string, which splits your content into more specific groups and helping you to optimize your keywords further.

A good structure would be:

1. Category – Holding your head term keyword.
2. Sub category – Holding your mid tail keyword.
3. Post – Holding your long tail keyword.

Structure Your Blog Posts

A blog post should always be set for searcher intent and for bots. After all a crawler is coming to your website just to grab the contents, send it to Google and Google will display it on a position that it thinks is good.

It has been repeated many times, that when you start writing your content, you should write for your users and not the bots.

Your website visitors are the ones that tell bots if your content is good.

Optimizing your content for visitors will get you more clicks, time on your site and better positions.

But in order to win a single visitor, you need to:

1. Target search intent keywords.
2. Use headings the right way.
3. Include a table of contents.
4. Give the answer in the beginning.
5. Add helpful images and infographics.
6. Link to articles inside and outside your blog.

Targeting search intent keywords

Targeting search intent keywords will help visitors to find your content. Depending on the relevancy and your keyword, visitors interact different with every website.

If you target the correct keyword to your article, you may give a purpose to a certain person to stay for a while on your website.

Keywords should be long tail and descriptive, because nowadays users write big texts, but search for one answer.

This means, that your mission is to give them this answer before anybody else does.

Using headings the right way

Headings are very important in writing.

They serve as a roadmap for readers so they can quickly see what your document is about, without having to read it in full detail.

But as we all know, headings are also structured and this structure cannot be disregarded.

A web page can have only one H1 tag, while sub headings such as H2 and H3 can be included more than one time, with a purpose to provide more detail about the content.

Including a table of contents

A table of contents is a list of the headings, subheadings, and page numbers for a book or other piece of long writing. It is typically found near the front or back of a work.

The table of contents is an integral part of the book because it shows readers where they are in relation to the entire work and helps them navigate through it.

It also helps readers know what they can expect next and prepares them to transition from one section to another.

A good table of contents will include all headings and subheadings as well as page numbers for quick navigation within the text.

Give the answer in the beginning

It may sound strange, but giving the answer in the beginning of your content, can make more visitors come to your website.

It is true that some of them can leave your site without checking more, but the interested people will stay and analyze more.

The purpose of giving the answer in the beginning is that visitors have questions that need to be answer. Google is ranking articles depending on who answers the question better.

Answering the question in the beginning of your article will not only get you better rankings, but also win you a featured snippet in Google.

Adding helpful images and infographics

Giving users plain text and no images is not an advisable tactic to go for. Sometimes readers need proof to start believing.

Providing them with images of your earnings can be a great way for them to put some trust in you.

If you also create “How To” articles, images may be a great way to explain the steps to each of your readers and win more time on your website.

On the other hand, whenever you are communicating through data, you will always need to include an infographic image, which can help your visitors understand you more.

Link to articles inside and outside your blog

Internal and external linking are sure important factors, which can help your visitors find more content inside and outside of your website.

Internal linking is when you link from one article to another inside your website. Or said with simple words, internal linking helps you to connect pieces of content (inside your website), which are relevant.

Internal linking can help visitors to find more articles, which are associated with the article topic and learn more from you.

While internal linking happens only inside your website, External linking is the opposite process.

External linking is when you link outer articles inside yours. Or said with simple world, this is when you link to other websites with relevant contents.

It may sound silly to link to external websites, but as you link to others, they may also link back to you.

It is not a mentioned SEO factor by Google or other search engines that outer linking can grant you better results, but it is one of the thousands unmentioned ones.

Conclusion

Your Turn. Once you have learned how to build a good website from scratch and have no idea how to go about designing it or structuring it, just stick with the basics.

You can always make changes to your site later on if you realize that the way it is set up now is not the best option. You may want to think about how you want it set up before publishing.

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