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You can have a beautifully designed site, but if a visitor can’t find the information they need on it, they're likely to quickly leave unsatisfied.
While site design helps to improve the visitor experience, communicate your brand identity, and drive visitor engagement, your site’s structure helps visitors and search engines navigate and understand your site’s content. Site structure deals with how your content is organized, linked, and presented to the visitor.
Read on to learn more about website structure, why it’s important, and how you can use it to make your site more user-friendly.
Types of website structure
There are four different types of website structure. Most standard websites will follow a hierarchical structure, using navigation menus. But depending on your needs, a different structure could be a better fit for your site and target audience.
Hierarchical (also known as tree): A visitor starts on a homepage and goes deeper in the site using menus to find specific pages. It’s used on everything from ecommerce sites and portfolios to major companies’ sites, and is recommended by Google for SEO.
Sequential (also known as linear): This takes visitors through a site step-by-step, like a guided tour. Online courses and checkout processes are good examples. Small businesses with limited content often use this layout because it streamlines the customer journey to a booking or purchase.
Matrix (also known as webbed): A matrix structure is a large network of linked pages, which gives visitors freedom to browse. It’s often used in large sites with interconnected content, like large online stores, news websites, or sites like Squarespace.
Database (also known as dynamic): This structure relies heavily on visitors’ ability to search the site and find their own navigation paths. It’s particularly useful for sites with a lot of user-generated content, such as social media platforms or online forums, because it offers flexibility and scalability. It's also useful for websites that have a large amount of content.
Why does website structure matter?
Creating a website with a clear, logical structure is important for several reasons. Your site structure impacts the user experience and search-friendliness of your website, which influences whether people can discover your pages and their impression of you or your business.
Better user experience (UX)
Think about the last time you used a website and couldn’t find the information you were looking for. That frustration makes you quickly exit, means you’re less likely to return, and probably leaves you with a less positive impression of the brand—all of that impacts a brand’s relationship with its audience.
A good website structure helps you achieve:
Easy navigation: Clear navigation menus and consistent layouts guide visitors through your content smoothly, reducing frustration and increasing the chances of them interacting with your pages and products.
Longer page dwell time: Visitors are more likely to spend more time on your site when they can quickly and intuitively find what they’re looking for.
Lower bounce rates: Visitors are more likely to explore more of your site rather than leaving immediately, which reduces bounce rates (the percentage of visitors who leave after viewing only one page) and makes them more likely to convert or return.
Improved search engine optimization (SEO)
Better SEO makes you easier to find and discover for new visitors. Search engines consider several factors when ranking your website in search results. The more clearly you can structure the information on your website, the easier it is for them to understand why it’s helpful and relevant.
Site structure can impact SEO factors like:
Crawlability: Search engines use bots to crawl through your site’s content to figure out what your site is all about. If your site is well-structured, it’s easier for bots to discover and rank your content, increasing the likelihood it appears in search results.
Internal linking: Linking relevant pages to each other within your site helps search engines understand how the pages are related. That gives it a clearer picture of how your site is relevant to a certain topic, improving your chances to rank for those searches.
Keywords and content organization: Organizing your website naturally organizes your content around specific topics and keywords, which helps search engines understand the focus of each page. This clarity improves the chances of ranking for target keywords.
Sitemap and indexing: A clear XML sitemap, helps search engines understand the hierarchy and relationships between pages, ensures that all significant pages are indexed. Squarespace sites come with a site map that includes the URLs for all pages on your site and image metadata for SEO-friendly indexing.
The key components of a website structure
The following components work together to form an organized website structure. When done well, they should lead to a positive visitor experience, excellent SEO results, and improved accessibility for your site.
Comprehensive homepage: Serves as an overview of your site and typically includes a navigation menu, a brief introduction, and links to popular or important pages
Navigation menu: A set of links that organize your site’s content into categories and subcategories so visitors can easily find what they’re looking for
Pages and subpages: Individual web pages, like a Contact page, and pages nested under another page, like “Consulting” or “Workshops” under a Services page
Internal links: Links between different pages on your site to guide visitors to related content
Footer: Additional navigation at the bottom of a web page that often includes contact details, social media links, and other important resources
Sitemap: A file that lists all the pages on a website, providing information about the site's structure to search engines
Content hierarchy and layout: The visual and structural arrangement of content on each page, including headings (H1, H2, H3, etc.), images, paragraphs, bullet points, and other media
Metadata: Information that’s important for SEO and helps improve the website’s visibility in search engine results, like meta descriptions, header tags, and alt text for images
How to plan your website structure
Squarespace website designs take website structure into account. But it’s helpful to review the components of your website to ensure they’re clear and well-updated. When planning out your website structure, it helps to start by writing out what your website goals are and which pages are most important.
Define your goals and target audience. Know what you want to achieve with your website, whether that’s sales, community-building, or sharing your work, and who you’re trying to reach.
Research and analyze competitors. Peers can help you understand industry standards, and help you see what works well and what doesn’t.
Outline key pages and content. Identify your site’s essential pages, like your homepage, about page, and services or product pages, and any subpages you might need.
Design your navigation. Decide what pages will go in your main navigation and secondary navigation like your footer, based on importance. Consider where you can interlink pages.
Test your site with visitors. You can hide your site behind a password and test its usability with colleagues, friends, or family. Are they able to find information easily? Are any sections confusing or difficult to navigate?
Review and improve. Periodically review your website structure to ensure it still aligns with your goals, your audience’s needs, and SEO best practices.
What a well-structured site does for site accessibility
Creating an organized site structure is a key part of building an accessible site. Keep accessibility best practices in mind to ensure that your website is usable by the broadest audience possible.
Many web accessibility guidelines, such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, discuss the importance of a logical website structure to ensure all visitors can access your content. Clear headings, logical structure, and intuitive menus can be especially helpful for visitors with disabilities.
A good website structure helps people with:
Cognitive and learning disabilities find and prioritize content on the page
Screen readers skip to the main content directly and navigate to sections that are important to them
Specialized keyboards browse pages and sections more efficiently
Visual impairments, including people with low vision, use cues that provide orientation on the page and in the content
Certain browser plugins to use landmark roles to jump to specific sections on a page