At ZMOT, we believe your website is an important component of your business. That’s why it’s essential to understand the basics of the proper way to put your site together. A well-structured website includes a strong call-to-action, captures your customers’ information and gets their permission to contact them. In addition, it should help improve your conversion rates and facilitate your website visitor analysis.
Organizing Your Website
Understanding the factors necessary to create an effective website will go a long way toward making sure your site meets your objectives. From the very start, you’ll need to understand how you want to structure it. The best way to do this is to build a map that shows where each page leads. There are software programs you can use to organize your site’s page structure. But you don’t need to buy anything special, a pencil and a piece of graph paper should suffice.
At ZMOT, we think the best way to start is to lay out your map in the shape of a pyramid, with your homepage at the top. Beneath that, add the categories in your navigation menu, followed by the appropriate subcategories. Keep it brief. You want to make sure you cover the important issues without adding all your content.
Organizing Your Content
Once you’ve decided which categories to add to the navigation menu, it’s time to consider the content you’ll add to the website. In your map, add the content below the corresponding categories. Determine which information is necessary to convey the site’s message and keep this high up in the site’s hierarchy of subcategories. If one of your subcategories is too big, split it into two smaller ones. You’ll want to maintain a good balance between categories and subcategories.
When it’s time for you to create the site, the structure of your URL should mirror the map you’ve created. This way, your content will be organized and it will be easy for your site’s visitors to find the information they’re looking for.
Creating Internal Links
Internal links are important for establishing your site’s architecture and increasing its page rank. An internal link is simply a link that points to another page on the same website. Each page should link to another page in some way. One method you can use to do this is to create an incoming and outgoing link on each page. Keep in mind that the link should point to content that relates to your site’s topic.
This internal link arrangement makes it easier for Google to crawl your website and increases the site’s SEO value. This is one reason why it’s important to remove outdated web pages from your site.
Site structure is an important but often-neglected part of your digital marketing strategy. It’s important to consider the organization of your website before you start to create the site. Stay cognizant of your topics and hierarchy when you categorize your content. Ensure that all your content is connected with a link structure that makes it easy for search engines to crawl your site.
