Improve Your Google Ranking – Web Site Hierarchy & Links

written by David on September 13th, 2011 and filed in Business Ideas, Latest News

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Part 2 – Web Site Hierarchy & Links

Part 2 of the 7 part series covering how you can improve your Google ranking looks at the role Web Site Hierarchy and Web Site Links play in search engine optimisation.

Web Site Hierarchy

Search Bots read a web site in a structured way and will look for a clear web site hierarchy which makes navigation easier for a reader as well as a search engine. Hierarchy in any form of communication is important and on a web site this is especially so as the user has little other opportunity of finding the areas of interest to them when they arrive on your site.
Imagine it as a road map which when clearly signposted enables all destinations to be found and moved between. If you offer different types of photography or even different services such as photography and event planning you will need a clear web site hierarchy.
Your web site hierarchy can be simple such as a linear series (much like a book) or a hub and spoke where everything revolves around a homepage. This type of web site hierarchy is fine for simple web sites which are only offering a limited amount of services or products. Most photographers however, will have far more complex offers, therefore a hierarchical tree will be required.

Hierarchy Web Sites

This tree is like an organisational structure where categories drill down off the home page. Each category can in turn have its own sub hierarchy. This structure to a website ensures that users can follow a logical path but also helps Google read and understand what your site is about and index it accordingly.
You should endeavour to make your web site hierarchy user friendly so that those visiting your website have a clearly mapped out journey available to them. Google will then index your site by following the web site hierarchy you have created.

Web Site Links

Web site links are also very important to Google and in this article we are going to talk about internal web site links. Part 3 of this series will look at external and back links.
Web site links between your pages are a great way of enhancing your readers journey and also that of the search engines. Text hyperlinks allow users to switch quickly between related content. For example your web site hierarchy may have wedding photography and portrait photography as two tabs/route from the home page. If you have presentation products as a separate tab then make sure you use hyperlinks on the pages to give the reader the chance to view the other offers. This method also reinforces your offer with the search engine providing you use relevant words to link pages. By this we mean use wedding album, portraiture frame, wedding or portraits as the link word, do not use click here as this does not score in SEO algorithms.
The objective of these internal web site links is to create a web of links where pages that are related can be easily accessed throughout the site.
Linking does not mean that you can afford to have a poor web site hierarchy, more that you can enhance the effectiveness of your hierarchy with relevant links. The first article in this series talked about web site content, meta titles and descriptions. Here we talked about the need to have relevant content in your site and how to make it search engine friendly. As content is so important in ranking it also helps to point Google to were relevant and related content are sitting on your site and internal web site links are ideal for this objective.

Summary

It is important that you think of your web site both as a road map with clear instructions but also as a complete story which means you can link pages together in a way that helps users find related information. Think of your web site hierarchy and web site structure as the Motorways and A-Roads and the internal web site links as B-Roads and country lanes which enable different and less structured routes but often more interesting routes to be followed.

A good web site hierarchy will ensure that Google picks up all your site and internal web site links will ensure that your content is further ranked in relevance.

Take part in our Google Survey

To complement this series we are also running a survey to find out how much of Google’s free software is used and understood. Let us know your position and views, so we can write more about the areas you want to hear about.

As a thank you for taking part in the survey if you enter your email address at the end we will send you a voucher code with either money off or a discount on your next purchase from one of our 35 brands, the choice is yours.

Other articles in this series

Part 1 – Web Site Content, Meta Titles and Descriptions
Part 3 – Using Back Links to Drive Traffic
Part 4 – Google Places a powerful SEO tool for photographers
Part 5 – Using Directories to Improve SEO
Part 6 – Using Social Media in SEO
Part 7 – Thinking Beyond The Home Page

Article supplied and written by David Finch the Managing Director of Purple Frog, a strategic, creative marketing agency.

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