professional website architecture

proper webpage design | information architecture | usability | more...

Successful webpage architecture is the artistic and scientific creation of quality websites that are highly usable for site visitors and efficiently indexed by robots and spiders, resulting in favorable search engine performance and positioning.

When referring to website architecture, careful planning, a solid foundation, advanced technology, and skilled engineering are the building blocks of quality construction.

information architecture online

logical organization | intuitive design | categorical presentation | scannable formatting

Webpage Information Architecture is the hierarchical organization and delivery of online data in a categorical and logical arrangement, broken down into scannable and descriptive groups of material and knowledge resources.

The objective of Information Architecture is to develop and provide the most intuitive and predictable interrelation of navigable content. Systematic layout and configuration of components should maintain consistency and interactive uniformity throughout the site, allowing visitors to evaluate and ascertain their previous, present, and prospective locations on the site at all times.

San Diego Web Studio is committed to search engine optimized design and robot friendly engineering - our approach to custom website architecture combines Google's Webmaster Guidelines with the following five crucial factors:

Proper website architecture is end user focussed, search engine optimized, aesthetically designed, interactively functional, easily navigable, logically organized, and systematically intuitive.

Read more about San Diego Web Design Studio's dedication to high quality website practices on our site essentials page.

search engine website architectural guidelines

text-rich navigation & attributes for improved search engine performance | more...

navigation, hyperlinks & website hierarchy guidelines:

search engine robot crawlability & technical usability guidelines:

engineering guided site visitor conversion paths

most wanted response | website objectives | successful transactions | more...

Next to search engine optimization and crawlability considerations, the navigational structure and style you choose should be based on your target audience's unique needs, the size of your website, and your industry & topics.

San Diego Web Design Studio also takes into account the nature of your business, services, and products, as well as the purpose and main objective of your online presence.

what is your "most wanted response"?

What is your "most wanted response" from a website visitor? What is the ideal outcome or action resulting from an end user visiting your site?

What is the defining benchmark of a successful transaction or site visitor engagement? What is your website's conversion objective or criteria?

Your "most wanted response" goal, or MWR, will help determine the directional path to best guide, steer, and persuade your site visitors toward taking specified action steps and meeting your site's conversion objectives.

hierarchic subcategorized menu tiers

tier 1: main website theme | tier 2: top level menu | tier 3: mini topic sibling stems

A common website hierarchical structure employs three levels of descending page prominence beginning with the home page at the top level, or tier 1.

Typically, top tier 1 menu items include the home page which often shares lateral placement with a contact page, sitemap, and in some cases a help or support page. All topmost pages are available directly from at least one link on every page on the website. usually situated across the top header of the page horizontally. Tier 1 level pages are within one click of every page.

Immediately following the home page and topmost siblings is level 2, a main categorical menu composed of content categories preselected based on targeted keywords and keyword phrases. Tier 2 menus items are generally displayed horizontally across the top of the page from left to right and consist of 5 to 15 main menu items descending into 1 to 15 tier 3 subtopics also keyword associated, significantly boosting the relevancy and authoritative richness of the site as a whole, thus the ranking of each page individually, as well.

Tier 3 menu items are often formatted vertically in left or right column menus and may display only when the tier 2 parent category is active.

organizing logical tiered topics

industry sector | service type | product families | geographic regions

When organizing website hierarchy according to keyword targeted opportunities, it is essential to appoint the prime keyword phrase or two to the home page, then assign the next most desirable key phrases to the tier 2 category menu items accordingly, following the tier 2 topics with associated subtopics contingent on the respective tier 2 keyword.

For instance, your website main theme may be "San Diego", therefore you might assign Tier 2 Categories as 2a) San Diego nightlife, 2b) San Diego shopping, 2c) San Diego venues, 2d) San Diego beaches, 2e) San Diego tours, 2f) San Diego restaurants & dining, 2g) San Diego transportation, 2h) San Diego health & beauty, 2i) San Diego professional services, and 2j) San Diego community.

Maintaining continuity between tier 2 and its respective tier 3 sublinks, 2a, nightlife, might pyramid down into 2a-3) live bands, 2a-3a) dinner shows, 2a-3b) live concerts, 2a-3c) theatre, 2a-3d) special events, 2a-3e) south of the border, 2a-3f) open late, 2a-3g) family events, etc; 2b might itemize 2b-3) outlets, 2b-3a) shopping malls, 2b-3b) designer boutiques, and so forth, extending a wide reach across the San Diego keyword market while providing useful, current, and highly relevant themed content.

hierarchical navigation vs. equivalent sibling pages

tiered hierarchy | global | siblings | static | chronological | text | more...

Google advises no page be further than 2 clicks away from the home page. With this in mind, it is important to note that usability experts recommend offering a site visitor a limited number of choices, or menu items, at any given time. The rationale behind minimizing the number of menu items displayed is to not overwhelm the site visitor with too many choices, thus layering the sections, categories, and subcategories into a hierarchic navigational scheme.

Many eCommerce websites are excellent candidates for a hierarchical, or layered, navigational structure. For instance, an online retailer might offer several different product categories such as bicycles, furniture, clothing, and electronics. Rather than clutter the home page with every type of appliance, accessory, and manufacturer offered for sale on the site, the merchandiser may choose to use subcategories and break, or "chunk", the content down to smaller subcategories available only after the site visitor has clicked on a parent category, i.e., a click on "apparel" might provide further choices that narrow down to men's, women's, children's, infants, outerwear, accessories, et al. Should the site visitor then select the subcategory "women's apparel" the products could be further compartmentalized into formal, casual, leisure, by designer, footwear, or categorized by blouses, pants, shoes, jewelry, clearance, and the like.

As an important step in our professional web design process, San Diego Web Studio will provide a website planning diagram similar to the navigational examples below to produce a logical and effective navigational structure for your particular end user's needs customized to your business' products and services.

are some rules made to be broken?

at least some of the time? equivalent sibling pages

Your business is unique...your site visitors have particular needs and perhaps immediate concerns or pending problems that you can solve...you cater to a niche target audience with a special cultural style...you offer novel products or services...you are introducing a new, nontraditional concept...you are establishing yourself or your company as an authoritative and comprehensive resource in your field and online community...you are competing in a very saturated and mature online market and must quickly convince your site visitors they will find crucial information...your end user faces a potentially threatening problem or situation and applicable information should not be layered or buried for him or her to find...

As each of our client's business, industry, goals, services, products, identity, and style varies, so does the need for a customized web design and presentation style tailored to their specific clientele. Could you improve your site visitor's response and experience by adjusting your navigational style accordingly?

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