Improve your online visibility with successful and efficient Information Architecture (IA). If you’re not sure what IA is, you’re not alone. IA refers to the way your website is organized. It’s the page structure, placement of information and elements, navigation, and outline. With the well-executed IA, you will increase the findability and usability of your page.
Better IA for a Better Website
Getting customers to your website is the main idea, but once they get there, are they facing a frustration free experience? Here are some tips to make sure your IA is on the right track:
- Set clear goals and purposes. Your content needs to fulfill a goal. What is the end goal of your website? What is the reason for your content? Create purposeful content that matches your goals and fulfills the needs and purpose of your site.
- Pay attention to key performance indicators (KPIs). You want to measure the performance of your website, and KPIs are the indicators of the progress toward that end result. What do you want people to do on your site? What order do they do that in? Understand this path and design your IA to cater to that process.
- Think mobile first, then desktop. This method forces you to eliminate the fluff and focus on the essential information first. Put the most important items first, then you can expand extras to your desktop site rather than needing to cram or eliminate information if you work the other way around.
- Be mindful of site analytics. This data can help inform your page navigation and the paths users take on your page (known as breadcrumbs). It’s helpful to map your content and design your AI around these data.
- Consistency is key. Accessing the same content in multiple ways is good practice. You don’t want the same content to have multiple URLs. Be consistent and accurate in your content management.
- Have one place for your content. Continuing with the consistency idea, it’s also good practice to eliminate duplicate content. Mapping your SEO keywords to certain pages will help prevent this from happening.
Site architecture was not a big priority in the past, but analytics technology has proven that it’s actually very important when it comes to SEO. Bottom line: sites with an effective structure rank higher in search results. Good websites are created and executed with the target user as a main focus, creating a user-friendly and intuitive experience for your site visitors. With effective IA, you can ensure your visitors see your page first, can navigate quickly and easily around your site, and can find exactly what they need.
Utah SEO’s experts will ensure your site has exactly what it needs and structure these needs to bring and keep visitors to your site. Creating the right website for you requires skill and expertise. There’s a lot more that goes into a website than the initial look. Off-page setup is crucial for the website to be effective. For help with your website, contact us with all your questions.
