Website Structure: How to Plan Pages and Hierarchy

What website structure is

Website structure is the plan for which pages exist and how they connect. This guide shows how to work out the pages you need, arrange them in levels and test the plan before design begins.

Plan website structure by listing what visitors need to do, turning each task into a page with one purpose, then grouping the pages into a hierarchy: a home page, a few sections and the pages inside each section. Keep important pages within a few clicks of the home page, link each page to its section and its neighbours, and test the plan with real tasks.

Website structure is the arrangement of a site's pages and the links between them. It covers which pages exist, which sit under which, and how a visitor or a search engine moves from one to another. The website hierarchy is the set of levels in that arrangement: the home page at the top, section pages below it and detail pages below those.

Structure is not the same thing as the menu or the page addresses. The menu shows part of the structure, and addresses may reflect it, but both follow the plan. Google's SEO starter guide says that organising a site logically can help people and search engines understand how its pages relate, and that you do not need to reorganise a site in a hurry because of it. Google's ecommerce documentation adds that Google generally works out structure from the links between pages, not from the shape of the address.

The word sitemap causes confusion. It can mean the planning diagram you draw, or the XML file that lists page addresses for search engines. This guide is about the diagram.

How do I plan the structure of a website?

Plan from the visitor's tasks, not from your organisation chart. Work through these steps in order.

1. Write down who the site is for and what each group needs to do. Pick the tasks that matter most, such as comparing services, checking suitability, requesting a quote or finding contact details.
2. List what you have to say: each offer, the proof behind it, the questions you hear often and the facts a visitor must check before they trust you.
3. Turn that material into candidate pages. Give each page one purpose and a plain name.
4. Group the pages by what a visitor is trying to do, and name each group with words your customers use.
5. Arrange the groups in levels, starting with the home page and the few sections below it.
6. Decide how the pages will link: section to page, page to related page, and every page to the contact route.
7. Test the plan on paper with real tasks before design starts.
8. Write the result down as a page list and a simple tree, and give both to your developer.

For a new business, the guide to what a startup website needs first suggests which pages come first and which can wait.

How do I decide which pages I need?

Give a topic its own page when it has its own audience question, its own evidence and its own next step. Keep it on an existing page when it is a small detail of something else. The table helps with borderline cases.

Avoid two common errors. One is a single page that tries to serve several unrelated visitors, such as a Services page crammed with every offer. The other is a set of thin pages that differ only in a place name or a keyword. A page with nothing new to say wastes the visitor's time and weakens the rest of the site. If you serve several areas, create separate pages only when each has something different to say, such as different jobs, routes or local conditions.

It also helps to sort pages into types, so the plan stays simple. The table lists the types most small business sites use.

How many levels deep should a website be?

As few as your content needs. There is no official maximum. For a small business site, two or three levels is usually enough: the home page, a section such as Services and the pages inside it. A large shop or a library of guides needs more levels, but it should keep important pages easy to reach through the menu, internal links and search.

The number of clicks needed to reach a page matters more than the number of levels. Google's older guidance on link architecture says to keep important pages within several clicks of the home page, and it gives no fixed limit. Its ecommerce documentation says Google can use how many links it has to follow to reach a page, and how many links point to the page, as a hint about how important the page is. Treat that as a reason not to bury key pages, not as a rule with a magic number. Check the current documentation before you rely on any detail.

A structure may be too deep when visitors must open several menus to reach a service, when pages have a single link pointing to them, or when a section holds only one page. It may be too flat when the menu has dozens of items, when one Services page lists everything, or when a section holds so many pages that nobody knows where to start. Fix a deep structure by merging sections or linking important pages from higher up. Fix a flat one by grouping related pages under a section page.

Draw the hierarchy before anyone designs a page

Write the structure as an indented list before any page is designed. This made-up example is for a small landscaping company that serves homes and offices.

• Home Services (section page) Garden design Lawn and planting care Office grounds care Projects (section page) One page for each finished project, with photographs Guides (section page) One page for each common customer question About Contact
• Footer only: privacy and terms pages

The same method suits an online shop, where Services becomes Shop, the next level holds categories and the level below holds products. A consultancy might put sectors or problems solved at the second level. Adapt the labels, not the method.

Link the pages together

A structure only works if the pages link to each other. Google says it finds new pages mainly by following links from pages it already knows about. A page that no other page links to, often called an orphan, is hard for visitors and search engines to find. Link from each section page to every page inside it, from each detail page back to its section and between close relatives. Add links inside the text where one page answers a question raised by another, using words that describe the destination.

Make the main action reachable from every page, usually through a button in the header and a link in the footer. Use ordinary links that a browser and a crawler can follow, because menus built only from scripts can hide pages.

Turn the structure into a menu and wireframes

Once the tree is settled, the main menu is a view of its top level. The guide to website navigation and menus covers labels, dropdowns and phone layouts. Wireframes come next. They are simple page layouts that show what goes on each page type and in what order, and the guide to website wireframes explains what they are and how to use them.

Test the structure before you build

Test the plan while it is still on paper. Write a few tasks drawn from real customer questions, show people a text-only version of the tree, and ask where they would look for each answer. When several people choose the wrong place, rename the page or move it. Changing a label on paper is quick. Changing a built site is not.

Plan for growth

Decide where a new page would go before you need it. If you may add a blog, case studies, a shop or another language later, leave room for it in the structure instead of squeezing it in where there is space. If you serve more than one country or language, decide early whether each gets its own section or its own site, because the choice affects every address. Review the structure once a year and whenever you add a service. Remove pages that no longer apply, and redirect their old addresses to the nearest replacement.

Give the plan to your developer

A page list and a tree are among the most useful things a developer can receive. Put them in your brief, with a note on which pages you will write, which need new photographs and which features sit on which page. The guide on how to write a website brief for a developer shows where they belong. A good developer will also tell you which changes are easy and which are hard once the site is built, such as the way pages are grouped into sections. The website development service page describes the websites Liftup builds.

Questions and answers

How do I plan the structure of a website?

Start with what visitors need to do, list the content you have, and turn it into pages that each have one purpose. Group the pages by task, arrange the groups in levels under the home page, and decide how pages will link. Test the plan on paper with real tasks, then hand a page list and a tree to your developer.

How many levels deep should a site be?

As few as the content needs. There is no official maximum, and two or three levels is usually enough for a small business site. Google's older guidance says to keep important pages within several clicks of the home page, without giving a fixed number, so focus on making key pages easy to reach.

How do I decide which pages I need?

Give a topic its own page when it has its own audience question, its own evidence and its own next step. Keep it as a section of another page when it is a small detail. Avoid thin pages that differ only in a place name, and merge any two pages that would say almost the same thing.

What is the difference between a sitemap and website structure?

Website structure is the plan for which pages exist and how they relate. A sitemap can mean the diagram you draw while planning, or an XML file that lists page addresses for search engines. The diagram comes first, and the XML file is produced from the finished site.

Should my URLs match my website hierarchy?

It helps people if an address reads as a path from home to section to page, but it is not required. Google's ecommerce documentation says it generally works out structure from the links between pages, not from the address. Choose clear, stable addresses and make sure the pages link to each other properly.

What is an orphan page and how do I avoid it?

An orphan page is a page that no other page on your site links to. Visitors cannot reach it through the site, and search engines may find it only through other routes such as a sitemap. Link every page from its section page and from at least one related page, and check for orphans whenever you add pages.