Plan your website structure in one sentence

Website structure is the way pages are organized, as a tree. The home page at the top, the main sections below it, then the detail pages. It decides what exists on the site, where it lives, and the path a visitor or a crawler takes to reach a page.

It is not the XML sitemap. An XML sitemap is a technical file that lists URLs for search engines. The structure is a planning document, decided before design, copy and development.

Everything downstream depends on it. The menu, the URLs, the number of templates to design, the amount of content to write, the budget.

• For visitors, a good structure means finding a page without searching. Sections carry names people understand.
• For SEO, each page answers one search intent. Two pages chasing the same query compete with each other, and a query with no page cannot rank.
• For the project, it is the document that sets the scope with the client. Adding a section on a diagram takes a minute, adding it after launch takes a sprint.

1. 1Write down the goals of the site and who it is for. A site built to generate quote requests is not organized like an online store.
2. 2Take stock of the content. For a redesign, start from the list of existing pages and how they perform. For a new site, list what you need to say and sell.
3. 3Group by topic and search intent. The words your visitors type into Google are a good guide to naming and splitting sections.
4. 4Set the levels. Home, sections, detail pages. Keep important pages close to the home page.
5. 5Name every page and give it a URL. Short, readable URLs that follow the logic of the sections.
6. 6Get it approved, then plan internal links. The structure is the skeleton, internal linking connects the pages.

Here is a typical structure for an SEO agency website. Three sections that sell, one that proves, one that brings traffic, and the utility pages.

Home
└ Services
└ SEO audit
└ Redesign and migration
└ Content writing
└ Case studies
└ One page per client
└ Blog
└ Technical SEO category
└ Content category
└ About
└ Contact
└ Legal notice

Each service page targets a commercial query, blog posts target questions, and case studies link back to the matching service.

The three click rule gets quoted a lot. It is not a Google rule, it is a rule of thumb. What matters is that the pages that matter to your business are linked from strong pages, like the home page and section pages, and easy to reach.

A brochure site usually needs two or three levels. A catalog gets deeper with categories and filters. In that case, focus on the links between categories and product pages.

• Mirroring the company org chart instead of what visitors look for.
• Creating two pages for the same intent. They split the signals and neither ranks well.
• Stacking levels to keep things tidy. A buried page gets few links and little visibility.
• Leaving pages with no internal link pointing to them. Orphan pages are hard to find, for people and for crawlers.
• Giving sections clever names nobody searches for or understands.

The generator at the top of this page gives you a first draft. With a free account, you edit it by hand or with one sentence, and add each page's URL, main keyword, search volume, intent and status. You can also import an existing site to start from its real pages.

When it is ready, share a link your client opens without an account, export a PDF, or download the keyword map as CSV.