Web site Architecture is the discipline of organising the technical and visual design of a Web site. The goal of good Site Architecture is to enable users to use the Web site in an intuitive manner.
The overall approach to the planning, designing and building of a Web site is not unlike traditional architecture in that it involves technical, aesthetic and functional criteria. In both cases the primary goal is on the user and how the user interacts with the design. This encompasses many areas for consideration not least amongst them being the actual content, the business objectives, usability and design
Site Architecture is fundamental to SEO (search engine optimisation) and the positioning highly on search engines of a Web site. For the effective use of SEO it is necessary to have an in depth knowledge of how search engines find, browse and index Web sites.
Properly constructed Site Architecture means that users will be able to navigate and find information on a Web site in an intuitive manner. As search engines attempt to mimic real users then it means that search engines will also navigate and find information on the site and rank it accordingly.
In practice Site Architecture should be fully compatible with good design. The main principals of content rich pages and ease of navigation are congruent to a good user experience and high search engine rankings.
