What Is Website Architecture?

No one likes getting lost. Whether you are walking around the city, studying using a textbook, or surfing around on a website, knowing how you can follow a pathway to get what you want is a relieving experience. Therefore as a marketing enthusiast, you should be able to construct your website in an easy-to-navigate way to not lose your potential customers. Plus, if your website is messy, you will not get any help from the search engines. So let’s take a look at website architecture.

Website architecture refers to the shape of your website to meet the business goals of a company or individual. It is basically the plan and web design of the visual and technical feasibility of a website. It’s used as a term by website designers as in the meaning of designing and developing a website. Website architecture is an essential step of website creation that affects the user experience drastically.

So, this article will look at the types of site structures. It will step-by-step investigate the development recommendations of great website architecture.

Types of Site Structures

All the World Wide Web websites have a basic organization website structure; which is similar to one of four main types of site architecture. So nearly all site architects use those types as their design basis. These main types can help you initialize organizing your website. It will also help the users find the piece of content they have been looking for without ease. So let’s have a closer look at them!

Sequential Model

Sequential model type structures lead users through a sequence. While hierarchically structured sites might lead you down or to another parent page, sequential structures will only show the users one step backward or forward from a step to another with linear category pages.

Matrix Model 

This structure model is nontraditional, but in the early years of the internet, they were pretty popular. Matrix type gives the visitor the choice of where they would like to go next without building a sequence. Or limiting the user with parent and child relationships between pages. As a result, you see many internal links under the main categories on the home page; and choose the link you want to visit.

Hierarchical Model

Hierarchical website architecture type is the most common type of modern website structure. They work with a parent and child relationship between pages. They are often called trees, as the pages with categories and subcategories are structured like tree branches.

Database Model

Database website architecture type is a dynamic model. It integrates a database using searches. However, building a site with this model requires a lot of attention. So you need to think from the bottom up and tag the metadata of your content based on the principles of architecture principles. If done correctly, the database model structures a website that visitors can create their own experiences. It’ll be based on the things they are looking for.

Development Recommendations of a Great Website Architecture

Developing a top level website with excellent website architecture might be a problem. There are things you would like to keep in mind while creating a website. In this section, you will be able to understand the fundamentally necessary steps of website architecture with recommendations. These recommendations will help you improve your website’s general structure.

Make Your Site Easier for Users to Navigate

No one likes a hard-to-navigate website where they will lose time trying to find the information they have been looking for. Suppose you can’t provide the necessary information quickly. In that case, the visitor will leave your website for a faster website; where users find the information they want quickly with greater website architecture. Please keep it simple, reachable, and straight to the point.

Make Your Website Stay Consistent

Your website should follow the format, design, and displays designed to operate on every page you create. Keeping a consistent pattern will keep the users on your site as they learn the navigation path in your website much easier.

Investigate the Websites of Top Companies in Your Industry to Get Ideas

Your customers will be very familiar with the website of the top company in your industry. Therefore, using their ideas and emulating them might help you get a more successful website and reach your business goals. For example, if your website is an eCommerce site, analyzing eBay or Amazon will help you a great deal.

Have Structured Links to Pages Relevant to Your Website

This recommendation helps you have a great website architecture. It enables you to increase your website traffic with search engine optimization. You want to map your pages in a way that will make your page rank rise. So the general look of your site will be more appealing. Using relevant links and fancy anchor texts that are keyword optimized, you can have a more prosperous and well-structured website.

Perform a Card Sort

Card sorting is a technique that designers use the coming data to improve a website’s information architecture. It is a design factor that helps people find the content they want to quickly and complete their tasks. The way it works is impressive. You organize and categorize your content the way customers would do in their minds. Like any other user experience research method, card shots can be performed in many different ways. This article will not focus on those varieties. If you’re interested in the topic, you should consider researching it further!

Frequently Asked Questions on Website Architecture

What is a site structure?

Site structure is the way that your website content is organized. All websites have different varieties of content, whether they are related or not. Site structure deals with the grouping, management, and presentation of those contents.

Is there an ideal website architecture?

The ideal website architecture is shaped like the branches of a tree or a pyramid. The general structure consists of a home page, categories, subcategories, posts, and pages.

Why should I start my website design with website architecture?

A good structure helps the designer to do his/her job faster. Users will be able to navigate easier on the website, and the overall user experience will increase. Plainly put, website architecture helps the website become a useful and simple experience through discoverability.

Why is website architecture important for Search Engine Optimization?

There are many aspects. First, if you have pages on your site that are some clicks away from your home page, search engines will have difficulty finding the pages. Second, site architecture sends link authority around the website. When you link high traffic pages, the page rank of your website’s pages will increase. The third and most important aspect is if your website architecture is well-done, users will be more comfortable while visiting your website, which helps your SEO.

What are the types of website architecture?

There are four main types of website architecture. One of them is the Hierarchical model, which is the most common type used on the modern internet. Then, there are sequential, matrix, and database models explained in the article with great detail under the subsection “Types of Site Structures.”

Conclusion on Website Architecture

Website Architecture is the first thing that should come to your mind if you’re a website designer. It creates a basis for your website design with a concrete foundation. It helps you create easy-to-navigate, creative, and appealing websites systematically.

Website architecture is a fundamental part of website creation. Focusing on it from the start of your design project will help you a great deal!

The post What Is Website Architecture? is republished from Dopinger Blog