To successfully run a website, nobody needs to know about site structure. To run a website that’s usable and understandable, by people and and search engines, it’s critical to know about site structure. Domains, hostnames, URLs, parameters and session IDs all have special meanings to web browsers and search engines. Merging everything together well can ensure that your readers get the best experience from the website.
What is site structure?
The image below shows exactly how a URL is formed. Each element, from 1 to 7, plays a special role.
This ‘address’ can be referred to in many different ways but when defining site builds, it’s best to understand the different elements and use the correct terminology.
Is site structure important for SEO?
There are many tasks in SEO that aren’t really that relevant if you get everything right from the start, and that’s exactly where site structure comes in. With a good design and implementation it can make running a website and measuring SEO success an easier task. Changing a site structure 2 years into running a website can be extremely risky and time-consuming.
Site structure – frequent questions
- URL length: how long can a URL be?
- What is a Session ID?
- What are trailing slashes?
- What is the root directory?
- What is a hostname?
- Do I have to convert the spaces in URLs
