Site Architecture Plan

Site Architecture Plan

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when you need to:

• Plan a website's URL structure and page hierarchy from scratch
• Restructure an existing site for better SEO and user experience
• Design an internal linking strategy that distributes page authority
• Create a content hierarchy that supports topic clusters and pillar pages

DO NOT use this skill for visual web design, wireframing, or technical performance optimization. This is for information architecture and SEO-focused site structure.

Core Principle

EVERY PAGE SHOULD BE REACHABLE IN 3 CLICKS OR FEWER FROM THE HOMEPAGE — FLAT, LOGICAL ARCHITECTURE HELPS BOTH USERS AND SEARCH ENGINES FIND WHAT THEY NEED.

Phase 1: Brief

Required Inputs

GATE: Confirm inputs before designing the architecture.

Phase 2: Site Structure

URL Hierarchy

## Site Map

/                           ← Homepage
├── /about                  ← About page
├── /services               ← Services overview
│   ├── /services/[service-1]   ← Service detail page
│   ├── /services/[service-2]
│   └── /services/[service-3]
├── /products               ← Products overview (if applicable)
│   ├── /products/[category]
│   └── /products/[category]/[product]
├── /blog                   ← Blog index
│   ├── /blog/[category]    ← Blog category pages
│   └── /blog/[post-slug]   ← Individual posts
├── /resources              ← Guides, tools, downloads
│   └── /resources/[resource-slug]
├── /contact                ← Contact page
└── /[landing-pages]        ← Campaign-specific landing pages

URL Rules

• Lowercase, hyphenated, no special characters
• Include target keyword in the URL slug
• Keep URLs short (under 60 characters ideally)
• No dates in blog URLs (allows evergreen updates)
• Category pages use /blog/category/ not /category/blog/

Page Type Definitions

## Page Types

| Page Type | Purpose | Keyword Target | Template |
|-----------|---------|---------------|----------|
| Homepage | Overview + trust | Brand + primary keyword | Unique |
| Service pages | Convert visitors | Service-specific keywords | Repeated |
| Pillar pages | Comprehensive guides | Head/body keywords | Guide layout |
| Blog posts | Answer specific questions | Long-tail keywords | Post layout |
| Category pages | Organize content | Category keywords | Index layout |
| Landing pages | Campaign conversion | Campaign keywords | Minimal |

GATE: Approve the site structure before designing internal linking.

Phase 3: Internal Linking Strategy

Link Architecture

## Internal Linking Rules

**Homepage:**
- Links to all main sections (services, blog, resources)
- Links to top 3-5 most important pages
- Receives links from every page (via nav and footer)

**Pillar Pages:**
- Link to every cluster blog post related to the topic
- Receive links from all cluster posts
- Link to relevant service/product pages

**Blog Posts:**
- Link to the parent pillar page
- Link to 2-3 related blog posts
- Link to 1 relevant service/product page
- Use descriptive anchor text (not "click here")

**Service Pages:**
- Link to relevant blog content for depth
- Link to related services for cross-discovery
- Link to testimonial/case study pages

Topic Cluster Map

## Topic Clusters

**Cluster 1: [Topic]**
Pillar: /resources/[comprehensive-guide]
├── /blog/[subtopic-1]
├── /blog/[subtopic-2]
├── /blog/[subtopic-3]
└── /blog/[subtopic-4]

**Cluster 2: [Topic]**
Pillar: /resources/[comprehensive-guide]
├── /blog/[subtopic-1]
├── /blog/[subtopic-2]
└── /blog/[subtopic-3]

Phase 4: Polish

1. Navigation Structure

Define the main navigation menu and footer links:

• Main nav: 5-7 top-level items maximum
• Footer: secondary pages, legal, social links
• Breadcrumbs: enable on all pages below the homepage

2. Technical Checklist

• XML sitemap generated and submitted to Google Search Console
• Robots.txt allows crawling of all important pages
• Canonical tags set on all pages
• 301 redirects planned for any URLs changing (redesign)
• Breadcrumb markup implemented
• No orphan pages (every page linked from at least one other page)

3. Growth Plan

How the architecture scales as content grows:

• New blog posts slot into existing clusters
• New services get pages under /services/
• New clusters are planned around keyword research
• Site map reviewed quarterly for structural issues

Anti-Patterns

• Deep nesting — /services/category/subcategory/sub-subcategory/page is too deep. Keep to 3 levels maximum.
• Orphan pages — pages with no internal links pointing to them are invisible to search engines and users.
• Flat blog with no categories — hundreds of blog posts at /blog/[slug] with no topical organization wastes cluster potential.
• Changing URLs without redirects — every changed URL needs a 301 redirect. Broken links lose all accumulated SEO value.
• Keyword cannibalization — two pages targeting the same keyword compete against each other. One page per primary keyword.

Recovery

• Existing site with no structure: Audit current pages, group by topic, create category pages, and add internal links. Do not change URLs unless necessary.
• Too many pages for manual linking: Prioritize the top 20 pages by traffic and link those manually. Use breadcrumbs and category pages for automatic linking.
• URL restructure needed: Create a complete redirect map before changing anything. Test redirects thoroughly after implementation.
• No blog content yet: Build the architecture now with placeholder categories. Fill in content based on the topic cluster plan.