SEO Demystified: Site Design & Structure

This is the third installment in the SEO Demystified series. Since each post builds on the previous one, I decided to link them in the right-hand column. If you missed the first two, I recommend starting from the introduction.

It’s also worth repeating that these articles are written to educate you in the craft of Search Engine Optimization. They are not intended to help you implement SEO. In fact, if you’ve read the first two posts you’ll notice that I continually encourage you to hire a seasoned professional. You’ll fare much better in the long run.

Where to begin?

A huge factor in SEO is the overall site structure of your Website. If a search engine cannot crawl your site in an effective way, your ranking will suffer. Likewise, the site’s internal linking structure influences an individual page’s ranking in very subtle ways. So where do you begin? Well, as they say, at the beginning.

In an ideal world, you will plan SEO during the site design or redesign. I always try to encourage clients to think this way, even if they do not see an SEO project on the horizon. Spending a little time and money on the front end can save some headaches later on. But ideal is often not reality. In most cases there is a time crunch or budgetary constraint that prevents too much effort here. We always include basic things like descriptive page titles and hypertext links, a site map uploaded to Google and meta data that houses site description and key words. But these are basic steps; not intended to replace a well structured site.

From keyword strategy to site design & structure

In the most simplistic terms, the point in the Site Design & Structure step is to map the terms you’ve selected in the first step onto pages within the site. If you do this properly, it will help your visitor arrive at the best landing page for their needs. For example, some users will simply be gathering information, while others will be comparing alternatives or deciding where they will purchase. Each type of user will have different reasons for visiting your site and will arrive through different search terms. As a result, you will have different copy, graphics and navigation all designed to mesh effortlessly. You can see why it’s better to approach a site design with SEO in mind.

You will design and structure your site with these two questions in mind. Can search engines crawl the site? Will users be able to easily navigate the site? There are both technical and usability considerations here. Be sure your SEO consultant can address both.

Remember, your goal is to bring those folks who search on your key phrases to the pages that offer the best match for their queries. No matter where a visitor lands, you want to guide them to your site’s sales funnel, so not only will you want to be sure your site can be crawled by the search engines, but is also easily navigated by the user.

If you have an existing site and embark on an SEO campaign, it is highly likely that you will be asked to implement certain changes to improve a search engine’s ability to crawl your site and a user’s ability to navigate your site.

My next post will address what most people think of when they hear the term Search Engine Optimization — optimizing Web pages. Years ago, it was the primary area consultants focused on. Today, it’s really the easiest.