Web Architecture
Web Architecture is the process of organizing and compartmentalizing the content of your website to optimize content management processes, and to ensure logical navigation and information discovery through browsing. While it is not actually about the visual design of the site, the layout of webpages often provide a visual representation of the website architecture.
Some of the most popular methods of organizing the content of a website are by subject, type, format or audience.
There are two main aspects to consider when designing the architecture of a website:
- The identity of the target audience and their expected perceptions; and,
- Content organization that will optimize webpage development and maintenance processes.
Website visitors will have a more pleasant user experience, and will be more likely to return to the website, if they manage to find what they are looking for in an intuitive manner. Effective website architecture will lead the visitor to information using a logical discovery process. It may be necessary to resort to the site search engine to find some very specific piece of content, but the first high-level breakdown of a site should be obvious at first glance, and the middle-level within the range of intuitive browsing.
Metadata and taxonomy may play a major role if the website platform has content management capabilities and supports the dynamic generation of webpages.
Black Cat Indexing can help you plan the structure of your website so that visitors can easily navigate in an intuitive manner, and you can update your content with minimum fuss.