What is Website Structure?

Ever noticed Amazon’s site? It caters to hundreds of thousands of products. One can find a product with help of a search bar. However, Amazon ensures the segregation of products according to their subcategory, and categories. Placing that search bar also comes under the site structure.

Making a Site structure helps in organizing the content on your site. Yoast.com writes A website often consists of content on a variety of – related – topics, presented on posts and pages. Site structure deals with how this content is grouped, linked, and presented to the visitor. If you structure your website well, it will benefit from this; users will find their way more easily and Google can index your URLs better.

Imagine, if Amazon doesn’t have a site structure (no search bar and segregation of products). What will happen then- users searching the products won’t be able to find and probably drop out of the site. Why?

• Users unable to navigate through the website
• Users not provided with too many options
• Not able to trace important information (search bar, menu list)

Why Structure matters for SEO?

Structure = Easy Access

Structuring the content of your website helps search engines find the information available on a site. If information related to mats and glass vas are on the same page, a user searching for glass vas might get irritated as he is shown doormats.

Ease of navigation to users is what Google looks for in a website. Google crawls the website for links, internal, external links via boot called Google Bot.

Avoid competition within the website

All the content has been put with proper SEO guidelines, here if the website fails to mark which is their most important, and least important content, chances are they will compete with themselves.

Amazon discovers that kitchenware items were mostly bought by 75% in the last two months. But if Amazon doesn’t have structure, and it fails to show Google the importance of the kitchenware category, chances are other items that don’t interest users will be more visible. Sites have to make sure to prioritize content, and services according to users.

Clear Site structure = Good User Experience

The site that helps users interact smoothly and let them explore the site without any disturbing elements enables a good user experience. Ensuring a good user experience is key to helping users complete the primary goal on the site. Users are there to buy an item or maybe explore. Ease of Navigation, placement of CTA, and other important elements and features are part of UX design and help place it where the user will need to see it.

10 UX strategies you need to apply to improve SEO rankings

The most amazing evolutions for marketers happen with the right combination of UX and SEO. A mobile-friendly website and responsiveness can positively affect SEO. When you work on your website’s SEO, you focus on the search engines and the visitor, writes Adam Fard in the article ‘How to boost your ranking’.

We have learned how User Experience affects the website and its growth. So here are the 10 strategies to apply to improve the SEO ranking of your Product/Website

Bounce Rate

People leave the website for many reasons. It could be bad navigation, false or inappropriate content, no access to resources, or users unable to access the website. Checking bounce rate to understand what is making users leave the site is a healthy practice for websites to follow. The RocketFuel study says the Bounce rate between 26%-40% is perfect.

Monitor Analytics (What’s working & what’s not)

Following the bounce rate metric, one should keep track of users’ activity. Another way to optimize the site according to user needs is to identify factors that are causing the bounce rate. Google Analytics is a tool that helps identify the average time of the user, and what is keeping the user on-site and what’s not.

Heading- For SEO and Users

Heading is a gateway for users to the websites. Proper and attractive headlines not only bring users to the site but help in appearing to search engine crawlers. Headline allows the website to tell users briefly that the user is at the right website for their requirements.

Site Navigation & Site Structure

As discussed above, site structure is a tool that helps the user to explore and stay on the website for a longer period. It also helps implement a user journey that is specifically designed for users to achieve their goals, and also business goals.

Site Load Time

Users don’t want to visit the site which takes more than 5 seconds to upload. The slower the load time, the chances are the website will face higher bounce rates. Content optimization here helps optimize the content on the website according to different devices and screen sizes.

Mobile Friendliness

The mobile is a new powerful tool in users’ hands. The majority of the users access the website through mobile, and if the site is taking time load, content is not optimized according to a mobile screen, it will lead to an increase in drop rate.

Call To Action

The website should have a clear CTA, that tells the user to ‘click here, and ‘this is your next step’. Users are unaware and possibly clueless when they arrive on site. A clear indication of their next steps helps in making the process easy.

Design for User Intent:

If there is a food website, it shouldn’t have pictures and videos from the mall food court. But

• Pictures and blogs about a recipe, and food items
• A page dedicated to restaurants providing different kinds of cuisine

Creating a website for user intent is to understand what users might be looking for, and also give them a chance to explore more about the subject by putting unique information.

Web Pages other than Homepage

Users come to the website from all over the internet. Some might click because they saw a pair of glasses, others might want to explore services. Landing everyone on the homepage might cause traffic, and bounce rates. The website has to make sure to show the exact page for which the user is visiting the website. This factor also helps google to recognize that the site has multiple useful pages, and helps in rank better in search engines.

Social Media Share buttons

Google appreciates the sites which have been shared and accessed on various social media platforms. It helps create brand value and trust with the customer. Social media share buttons should be easily traceable and available on every page for users’ ease of access.

It is important to have a great user interface because the search engine will only rank your site if it finds customers there as well. If people enjoy using our website, then more users may end up visiting and leading them on an expanding journey with you. Websites that are loved by the user base show up higher on search engine rankings. As a result, more people visit your site and it becomes an attractive option to buy or use for potential customers looking online!