Websites can grow over time. For instance, your client’s initial website design might only include a homepage and a few product or service pages. However, the website will grow to accommodate the client’s thriving business. Such changes also affect the best SEO practices.
You cannot randomly create new pages and add them to the website because it’ll affect its structure. As websites expand, linking them becomes more complicated, which is why site taxonomy becomes crucial.
Proper site taxonomy is crucial to help your client achieve their SEO objectives.
If your agency doesn’t offer web design or SEO services, consider getting white label SEO services and web design services from Rocket Driver. Rocket Driver can also help you develop the ideal site taxonomy for clients.
What is site taxonomy?
Websites have a structure supporting individual web pages. Some websites follow a rigorous and streamlined system, while others aren’t as organized. Site taxonomy refers to how websites classify their content. It allows you to organize content into groups with similar characteristics, making it easier for Google and the audience to find content.
A website’s taxonomy will significantly affect how Google crawls it. In addition, it’ll influence the user experience and heavily impact search engine rankings. It’s also worth noting that a website’s taxonomy can affect how it creates internal links, which undoubtedly affects its rankings on search pages.
Google’s Webmaster Guidelines emphasize the importance of creating a hierarchical taxonomy because it helps the search engine crawl websites and understand the content’s context easily.
Should you opt for flat or faceted taxonomies?
There are two taxonomy structures that most websites commonly use. They include flat and faceted taxonomies. The former is a hierarchical system ideal for when you have various topics with an already established semantic relationship.
Entities are also easier to use in flat taxonomies with a single classification dimension. You can use a parent-child relationship for these entities, allowing Google and other search engines to learn more about a topic. Establishing such relationships also helps organize things logically for users.
Faceted taxonomies are better suited to the subject matter with different dimensions of classifications. You can use faceted taxonomies for topics where the semantic relationship between entities isn’t available.
Similarly, you can create an ad-hoc taxonomy encompassing various pieces of content.
Why site taxonomy matters
Site taxonomy matters because it affects how users interact with a website. Users are more likely to find relevant information if the content is organized logically on a website. In addition, the more properly structured a website’s taxonomy, the more likely the website becomes to receive backlinks from reputable sources. As a result, users will be likelier to see the website and interact with it.
User experience is crucial because the audience will leave a website if the information is difficult to find. One of the tenets of good website design is an easily navigable website, and site taxonomy aids that.
In addition, site taxonomy also matters for SEO because it helps search engines better understand the website’s architecture, making crawl and indexing easier.
Google and other search engines use bots to analyze and crawl websites. These bots don’t understand website structure and content like humans. As a result, site taxonomy makes it easier for them to crawl a website, helping it perform better in search engine rankings.
Keep site taxonomy simple
Some SEO professionals build site taxonomies with hundreds of categories and subcategories. But this makes it more difficult for users and Google to navigate the website and find relevant information because the website’s structure is adversely affected. It’ll take Google longer to index and crawl the website. Similarly, the user experience will also be affected because users will have to sift through numerous categories to find relevant information.
Keeping site taxonomy simple is good advice. The ideal site taxonomy is easily navigable and simple. It focuses on specific topics central to your client’s business.
More importantly, simple taxonomies prevent the complicated issues of larger, more complex taxonomies.
Do the relevant keyword and topic research
Keyword research is crucial for any SEO activity, and site taxonomy is no exception. Keyword research is crucial because it helps you discover the audience’s search intent. Similarly, topic research is necessary because it helps you learn more about your client’s audience’s interests.
Acquiring this information will allow you to organize your client’s site taxonomy into useful categories based on the audience’s interest. It’ll help all the pain points the audience might be experiencing, allowing your client’s website to provide a higher-quality user experience.
Focus on the target audience when creating a taxonomy
Keeping your client’s target audience in mind is also important when creating site taxonomy. You’ll want to identify their needs and search intent. Learning how they use your client’s website is also a good idea.
Creating buyer personas can help identify these facts. You can also examine competitors’ websites and assess how users navigate them.
You’ll also want to learn how users identify and access information about supporting topics.
Learning more about your client’s target audience can help you design the website accordingly. It’ll help facilitate their needs.
Leave room to grow the website
Websites usually grow larger than anticipated over time. Your client might have specific categories and topics they currently want to cover. But they’ll eventually run out of things to cover down the line.
Therefore, leave enough room for growth in the website’s taxonomy. A website’s taxonomy changes as the business grow bigger. You’ll likely need to change some categories when this happens to ensure everything remains interrelated.
For instance, let’s assume your client hires new team members who are well-versed in specific topics. Their job responsibilities entail creating new blog posts for these topics. These new team members won’t be in the client’s site taxonomy. You’ll have to add them. In addition, you’ll also need to create new categories for your client’s blog.
Get Started with Rocket Driver
If you’re searching for white label marketing solutions, check out Rocket Driver. The industry leader offers several services to agencies, including White Label SEO, White Label Marketing, White Label Reputation Management, White Label Social Media, White Label SMS Marketing, White Label Content Marketing, and White Label Web Design.
Check out their website,www.rocketdriver.com/. You can also contact Rocket Driver to kickstart a white label partnership today.
Book a demo now with Tom Lombardi, one of the founding partners, who will give you a 45-minute, one-on-one tour of the Rocket Driver Partnership to show you how incredible they are!