With millions of websites surfacing on the web nowadays, and with thousands of others being developed and put up every day, it can be difficult to find the website of your law firm amongst the top pages of any search engine. Even if your law firm is doing well compared to others, your website might fall behind. It has nothing to do with your services, but with your website architecture. A good law firm can solve cases effectively, but when it comes to advertising and website development, you need to hire knowledgeable people in this niche to help you develop a website that successfully placed in the rankings. Website architecture is the structuring and the layout of the pages of your website. If your architecture is not properly interlinked , it will not fall amongst the top search numbers. 

Here are a few reasons why improper website architecture can affect your SEO results and not help you achieve the top spot.

Ineffective site architecture interlinking

If your website consists of a number of pages and they are not properly interlinked, it would be difficult to find those pages in the search engine. All the pages, firstly need to be connected to the home page, and in that manner, the SEO results will showcase all pages effectively.

Not linking pages with superior priority

If all pages on your website are not equally important, and if you have not interlinked those pages which contain the most vital information, your ranking will fall. According to the SEO experts at https://lawyerseo.com, keyword search and SEO are extremely significant. So, not linking all pages, but only the relevant ones can also increase your SEO ranking. 

Cluttered website

An improper user interface will not allow the browsers to navigate through your website efficiently, for example,  the users not being to locate the buttons or unable to go back to the last page of the website. If the URL structure and the content grouping are unorganized, it can affect the search results on your website. So, how exactly can you improve your website architecture for efficient SEO results? Let us answer that question for you.

The page or content layout

The core of the architecture of a website is formed by the hierarchy of the pages and how the layout is designed. If you have multiple pages or a lot of information to display on your website, you need to arrange them in a simple and minimal hierarchy pattern. If you haven’t launched your website yet, you need to check your site’s structure. You could use a simple pen and paper to sketch out the layout, or you can take the help of any spreadsheet program. 

Categorization

Arranging the hierarchy leads us to the categorization of the pages under logical headings. Putting up an informational page under a different category does not make sense. You need to come up with the appropriate categories and their names. A few aspects to consider in categorizing are as follows

– Do not complicate the process; keep it minimal.
– If possible, keep equal or almost equal numbers of sub-categories for each heading.
– Try to make as few categories as possible. You need to keep the template as simple as possible for the users to enjoy using it.
– In this manner, even if you want to add a new page or new information, categorization will help you to create a completely new heading and continue from there in the future.

Interlinking the category and the pages

As mentioned above, interlinking the pages to the category and vice versa is extremely important for the bot spiders to search your page. It also makes the user experience very easy. Interlink every necessary page from the navigation menu and every page to other pages. Basically, a linked page should show a ‘link from’ and ‘link to.’ Majorly, the main categories should lead to the sub-categories with just a click on the word, and similarly, the sub-categories should directly link to the pages. All this interlinking will provide you with a tailored website architecture and structure that will help your website gain a position in the top ranks steadily.

Structure a URL pattern

A URL structure is an exact hierarchy that you designed for your categories. A properly structured and designed URL can lead directly to the website’s page, showcasing the careful consideration put into designing it. And structuring the URL will be a piece of cake if your hierarchy is well designed. 

Use simple coding

Using simple coding tools such as CSS and HTML can help your site navigation gain more traction. More complicated tools such as Java or Flash will limit the crawlability of the website.

Preparing a site map

Site maps are a small but prominent factor in order to have a clearer picture of your website. These are usually added at the end of every main page, besides the “contact us” or “reach us” tab. This will also enhance the crawler’s ability to find your site.

Shallow website vs. deep website

A shallow website is the one wherein you have to just conduct fewer clicks in order to access it, whereas a deep website is the one where you need to click it many times. Shallow sites will also help you to reach a wanted page, with increased crawlability, whereas deep sites do not function in that manner and do not have better linkability. Hence, shallow sites are more preferred.

Other factors that might affect or enhance the website architecture include, keeping the website minimal and also working on the user interface, having a few options as possible, having a header menu, anchoring the text links, and limiting image-based navigation. This can further strengthen SEO and your website architecture. 

Before reading this article, you might not have thought that website architecture is that significant, but it certainly is. As soon as you begin thinking about creating your website, chart out all these points, and have careful consideration for everything mentioned. If you follow these tips thoroughly, your law firm website will surely pop out amongst the top-ranking pages of any search engine.