Fundamentals Of Site Architecture For ECommerce Websites

In this chapter, we’ll talk about site architecture — an element that has a deep impact on user experience and dictates how search engines find the pages within your website.

Keep it Simple: The eCommerce Site Architecture Mantra

Optimizing the site architecture of an ecommerce website requires simplifying how the site is organized. The goal is that users should find the site easy to use, and search engine bots can easily crawl the site.

Essentially, an eCommerce website must have user-friendly navigation, where products are organized conveniently for visitors to search and find. On the other hand, it must be search engine friendly.

Why Site Architecture Matters for eCommerce Websites?

Site architecture is the manner in which a website is organized to lead from broad topics to sub-topics, and other particular pages.

In terms of an ecommerce website, this structure determines how soon a visitor reaches a product category or a specific product from the homepage. eCommerce sites that preserve link authority have a scalable, flat site architecture. This enhances crawlability so that the site is easier to index, therefore, easier to rank higher on Google too.

Although studies have debunked the 3-click rule, a simple navigation matters in converting leads to sales, and overall user experience of the site. Optimizing the site architecture of your eCommerce website is fundamental to its success. Did you know that if your website took just 2 extra seconds to load, your bounce rates would increase by 50%?

The Rules of Site Architecture That Work for eCommerce websites

The design of your eCommerce website defines how you will present your content and how accessible it will be.

Let’s look at some of the basics of site architecture:

Simple navigation, scalable structure

A concise and obvious navigation is the first basic rule of a good site architecture. The user wants to find and buy a product from you, not decode the clues to a treasure hunt—so make it easy for them. Start with:

Homepage that is clean, and has everything necessary
An uncrowded Main Menu with logical and straightforward, additional drop-down menus
A prominent search bar
A user-sitemap

Structure your URLs

Optimize your URLs to be clear and relevant. They should involve your target keywords and make sense to both users and search engines. Avoid using too many numbers, and keep them within 70 characters.

For instance, optimize a URL like this:

www.havenshoes.com/c23/i-5859403/puma-unisex to this www.havenshoes.com/casual-shoes/sports/puma-unisex/buy for better results.

Make it mobile-friendly

Mobile eCommerce sales are projected to reach $3.56 trillion in 2021—a 22.3% jump from 2020. Making it easy for mobile users to navigate your eCommerce website will bring more traffic to your site. User experience is a big aspect of customer engagement.

Use Breadcrumb menu

A breadcrumb menu allows visitors to easily navigate back and forth to pages of previous category, subcategory, and product. It helps users understand their location on the site. In terms of SEO, you get natural internal linking and another way of adding keywords.

Here is the examples of Breadcrumb menu for eCommerce website

Include filters

Even with strict organization of product types, a large variety of products can overwhelm a user. Simplify the process by adding filters. It allows users to find products using exact modifiers.

Improve Conversion Rates by optimizing Product Pages

Every ecommerce website can benefit from optimization and management upgrades. Your platform may have a range of products, however, without sensible site architecture it will hardly have traffic and sales.