While there are many factors such as on-site and off-site optimization that contribute to a healthy and successful search engine optimization campaign, there are also some other very important things to consider when planning your website for SEO success. One such on-site optimization factor is website architecture.

What is website architecture? Website architecture is the way your website is planned, structured and built. This can be a relatively simple process as long as some basic best practices are implemented when planning and constructing your site. Let’s take a look at some key ingredients of a healthy website architecture and some things we can do to ensure that your site is built on a solid foundation.

The first step in creating a healthy website architecture is planning for a great user experience. You have taken the time to create great content for your new site so let’s make sure that this content is never more than a couple of clicks away for your visitors.

Using a simple site-mapping process when planning your website can help ensure that your visitors can reach the information they are seeking quickly and easily. Not only do visitors get frustrated when they have to dig too deep into your site to find what they are looking for but search engines don”t like this very much either. Search engines have a tougher time indexing content that is buried in your site and this will only hurt your site’s rankings. A little bit of extra time spent during the planning stages of your website will ensure that both your visitors and search engines will be able to easily identify and understand the content within your site.

Another very important consideration when planning for a healthy website architecture is internal linking. Providing your visitors with clear and concise text links throughout your site will help them navigate your site more efficiently and also allow search engines to index your content more efficiently as well.

A great example of this technique can usually be found on well-designed about us pages. When planning your about us content, it is typical to mention company history and services provided. When mentioning your services, include links within the text that link directly to the actual services pages where more specific service information can be found. Doing so will provide a better experience for both humans and search engines alike!

In summary, a little bit of extra time planning for a healthy website architecture can produce very beneficial results for your website and your business.