Content MarketingE-commerce and RetailPaid and Organic Search Marketing

What Your Site Hierarchy Looks Like (Design, Index, Links, and Journey)

So many companies I work with focus so much of their time on their home page, navigation, and subsequent pages. Many of them are bloated, with unnecessary content and pages that no one reads – yet they still ensure they are out there. Designers and agencies sit down and develop the site with a great hierarchy in mind that typically looks like this:

Your Website Hierarchy

They hope that link juice and prospects properly flow from the most important page in the hierarchy to the least important. That’s not the way it really happens, though.

As Google discovers your site and the links that point to your content, Google begins to develop its interpretation of your site hierarchy based on the link quantity to each destination as well as the URL structure.

Your indexed website hierarchy

It’s difficult to understand that just because you think that you’ve designed a hierarchy that matters and that focuses attention where you’d like it to be, doesn’t mean that’s how your site is discovered and actually utilized!

Your website hierarchy journey

As you design your site hierarchy, you’ll want to keep this in mind:

  • With your page navigation and menus, how does your site look hierarchically?
  • With internal linking and URL structure, how will a search engine index your site and understand your site hierarchy?
  • How are your customers navigating the site (not necessarily the home page) when they arrive at your site?

Visualizing each of these is helpful and ensures that your site is optimized for your home page visitor, search engine visitor, and conversions.

Design accordingly!

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Douglas Karr

Douglas Karr is a fractional Chief Marketing Officer specializing in SaaS and AI companies, where he helps scale marketing operations, drive demand generation, and implement AI-powered strategies. He is the founder and publisher of Martech Zone, a leading publication in marketing technology, and a trusted advisor to startups and enterprises alike. With a track record spanning more than $5 billion in MarTech acquisitions and investments, Douglas has led go-to-market strategy, brand positioning, and digital transformation initiatives for companies ranging from early-stage startups to global tech leaders like Dell, GoDaddy, Salesforce, Oracle, and Adobe. A published author of Corporate Blogging for Dummies and contributor to The Better Business Book, Douglas is also a recognized speaker, curriculum developer, and Forbes contributor. A U.S. Navy veteran, he combines strategic leadership with hands-on execution to help organizations achieve measurable growth.

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