Information Architecture
What it is
The Information Architecture (IA) represents the overall organization of content for your site. This top-level view is used to help ensure high value pages are clearly organized and related to one another. Additionally, as your digital strategy deepens, it provides a useful way of considering how, where, and what to add, in terms of content, to help drive specific business results.
Why it matters
Clear architecture is essential for SEO and that means static navigation. Search engines use internal links to figure out content priority and relationships between different sections of the site. Having a clear and well thought out architecture is part of this, along with a sound main menu and good navigation for users.
Additionally, being clear on the information architecture of your site is critical to directing content and development, whether you’re setting up a new site, auditing and existing one, or making changes to drive business results.
What to do
- Pages should be a number of clicks from homepage proportional to revenue; the highest value pages should be linked directly from the homepage.
- Consider breadcrumb navigation.
- Keep the number of internal links per page below about 150.
- Consider a mega-menu if you have a large number of subcategories.
- Ensure that all content with search value is well linked from other pages.
- Use footer space wisely.
