I’ve been trying to figure out this website’s site structure. I write about random things and make random pictures that I post on social media. But what the hell is going on? I think I figured out what to do. Almost anyways. As usual, I need this blog to get my thoughts down. So let’s dig in.
It seems easy, but it is a pain in my butt. For someone writing articles on how to start a website, I sure don’t know what I’m doing, lol.
Wisedocks Site structure
As of right now, the menu is set up like this. The Cool Things category is all over the damn place. That’s where my problem is. I enjoy covering the history and origins of traditions and how things work. They are all piled in there. So I need to rework some things.
| Home | The Cool Stuff | Trivia | Blog | About Me |
| >Astronomy | >Did you know? | |||
| >Awesome Places | >Astronomy | |||
| >Cool Things | ||||
| >Famous Quotes | ||||
| >Gaming | ||||
| >Strange Things |
New Layout
So I opted for the layout below. I could put history and origins of traditions posts in the History tab and start making individual posts for my did you know pictures I make for social media. They usually have a brief description of a fact. It would be cool to give them their pages and explain the point in more detail.
I could also use the “did you know” category for explaining how things work. The Strange things category can get merged into this as well. So basically everything in the strange things category will have a broken link. Boo.
Since I decided to shut down my jokes sites and merge it with this one, everything just starting making sense. I put personal things like my about me, rants and my “book” under home. Everything Entertainment gets its own tab, Fun things can be lots of things like the quote, jokes, trivia and the silly short stories. Be Curious will contain my evergreen content for anything educational I guess you could call it.
I also made a page for everything you see in this graph. All actual posts will be within these categories.
| Home | Entertainment | Fun Things | Be Curious |
| >About me | >Gaming | >Famous Quotes | >Astronomy |
| >House on Fire | >TV & Movies | >Jokes | >Current Things |
| >Rants | >Shorts | >Did You Know? | |
| >Trivia | >History | ||
| >Websites |
Google is going to be mad
Rearranging the menu like this sounds simple, but it has significant implications. It will break links by moving posts into different categories. I will have redirects to fix this, but search engines hate redirects. So it will take months to correct it in the search engines.
This is the reason I’m putting so much thought into site structure now, while the site is new. If I change my mind a year from now, when I have hundreds of posts, will be detrimental to the search engine placement of Wisedocks. At the moment it will only affect a couple posts. So let’s get it done.
I could put the posts that will end up with broken links into multiple categories to solve the problem. But then it will create duplicate content when the website is crawled. This is a major problem. Google for instance will avoid duplicate links to the same article. It looks spammy to them. So it’s best not to do it.
Back to square one
This change is going to cause google to hate me. Three months of work down the drain to get indexed. But it will pay off in the long term.
Learn from my mistakes
Before you set off making tons of articles and other content, plan out your structure. Think about any topics you may discuss later. And make a graph as I did above. Even if you don’t add all of the elements initially. Keep them in mind for the long term. The site structure should be one of the main things you focus on after you get your website up and running. Why worry so much about a menu? I have four reasons I can think of and I’m sure there are more.
Improved User Experience
A well-structured site makes it easy for users to navigate and find the information they are looking for. This enhances their overall experience and can increase the chances of them returning to your site in the future. If you keep changing up the menu, returning visitors can become frustrated by not being able to locate content.
Better Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
A site’s structure is one of the many factors that search engines use to rank websites. A well-structured site can help improve your search engine rankings, making it easier for users to find you. The menu, in particular, helps search engines understand the hierarchy of your website and its important links. This is important for determining the relevance and quality of your site, which can impact your search engine rankings.
Easier Maintenance
A well-structured site is easier to maintain and update. This can save you time and resources in the long run, as you won’t have to spend as much time fixing broken links or reorganizing your content.
Scalability
A well-structured website will make it simpler to expand its pages or sections as it evolves. This will help you prepare for future growth and maintain an accessible and navigable site for your users. It’s a good idea to plan ahead by having a set of categories in mind, even if you haven’t created any content for them yet. As you produce more content, you can add new categories rather than having to rearrange existing content and modify links.
Thanks for reading, I hope this helps you out on your journey to making the next big website out there.
