Your website is often the first impression potential customers will get of your brand. Whether they Google you, your product or your service directly or whether they stumble across your site while browsing the Internet, your business’ website serves as a digital representation of your brand before customers have the opportunity to interact with you directly. For that reason, presenting a website that is both engaging and user-friendly should be made a top priority in your digital marketing efforts. Part of achieving that goal is to implement a website structure that works for you, rather than against you.

Having a successful website structure works for you in several ways. Not only does it show site visitors that you know what you are doing and that you care enough about their experience to put time and effort into cultivating it, but it can also benefit you in terms of SEO. Here’s a closer look at how having an ideal site structure can be used to your advantage.

• User experience. First on the list of benefits your business will receive from implementing an effective website structure is the fact that users will be able to easily interact with it—and therefore will want to interact with it more. Consumers should be able to navigate your site and find what they are looking for without any issues. If they are unable to do so, then it is less likely they will want to return to your site, or to use your product or service at all. It should be clear to consumers what exactly you are selling upon first pulling up your site.
• Search engine rankings. Like almost everything you do online, your website structure affects your search engine optimization, and having a well-thought-out site structure can actually lead to your pages earning a higher ranking on Google. For one, Google uses your site structure to sort the most important content from the least important content—and everything in between. If your site has a good structure, Google (like your actual human users) will easily be able to understand what your website is conveying. In addition, if you have similar content located in multiple places within your own site, this can hurt your search engine rankings if your site is not structured effectively. Site structure allows you to essentially “’rank” your own content using internal linking so that Google will recognize which content you deem most valuable.
• Ability to edit. Not only can your website structure benefit your brand in terms of appealing to your site visitors, and to Google, but it can also help you stay organized and facilitate in terms of making edits to your site. Especially if your site features products, it is likely that these will change and need to be updated frequently. With a clearly-defined and amendable site structure, making these types of changes on the fly will ultimately give you fewer headaches.

When you implement successful website structure, you will be more likely to maintain a professional site associated with a likeable user interface—and one that can actually get you ranked higher in terms of search. Both your site visitors and Google will appreciate the efforts you make to craft a beneficial site structure and should reward you as a result. Your site manager will also reap the benefits, as the structure will be conducive to both editing and updating the website.

So how do you create a successful website structure for your brand? Stay tuned to next week’s McNutt & Partners blog, in which we will feature tips for setting up a successful site structure.

Need help creating a website that will work for your brand? Contact the McNutt & Partners team today at 334-521-1010, or visit our contact page.