Site Taxonomy SEO Best Practices

Site visitors don't want to hastily comb through a website to search for the answers to their queries. They want fast and conveniently accessible answers. Thus, a website's structure plays an essential role in SEO strategy.

But how does site taxonomy help with search engine optimization? This post will go over the following topics to assist you in creating site taxonomies.

  • Definition of Site Taxonomy
  • Importance of Website Taxonomy
  • Best Practices in Building a Site Taxonomy

Site Taxonomy Definition

Website taxonomy is the framework that logically groups material. The most typical examples of this are a website's pages or a blog's categories.

All aspects of a site's structure, from organization to classification, will be governed by a classification system based on the semantic properties of the different elements and how they connect.

Importance of Website Taxonomy

The taxonomy of your website can have a significant impact on both how Google crawls your site and the user experience.

Unstructured websites are often hard for visitors to grasp. Site visitors will view you as a reliable source and stay longer if they can easily access your website and get what they want.

A well-designed taxonomy is also essential for search engine optimization (SEO). Search engines consider context and website structure while analyzing the following:

  • ranking metrics flow
  • page value
  • keyword objectives

Search engine bots are more likely to detect a taxonomic structure while examining and indexing your website.

Your website taxonomy can also influence how internal links are built, significantly increasing your ranking on Google.

SEOLeverage™️ offers an SEO link service that provides valuable and high-quality backlinks that can boost your Google rankings.

Types of Website Taxonomy

Because taxonomy is a classification system, the logical structure may appear hierarchical and arranged in order of importance. But this situation doesn't always occur.

Below are the different site taxonomies to help you decide what best suits your website.

Type of Site TaxonomyDefinitionExample

Flat Taxonomy
A flat website taxonomy is merely a list of top-level categories, often known as an unlayered taxonomy.This site structure has no hierarchy of importance; all categories are equally important. It's the ideal design for websites with less material that are smaller in size.An example of this site taxonomy is a website with a homepage that consists of a few category pages like the following:About UsLocationServicesContact Us

Hierarchical Taxonomy
An arrangement of categories according to importance is known as a hierarchical taxonomy.More prominent websites frequently use this taxonomy type, with broad top-level categories.For example, a website has three main categories: Products, Rates, and Blog.More specific subcategories are displayed if a site visitor clicks over them.URLs for these categories look like this:example.com,example.com/productsexample.com/ratesexample.com/products/apparelexample.com/rates/promos

Network Taxonomy
Content is categorized into associative categories using a network taxonomy. Although the connections and linkages between topics can be simple, they must make sense to consumers.For instance, a website's "Most Popular" category page may have a wide range of well-liked content.Because users highly evaluate, view, and visit these categories, it makes them all similar.

Facet Taxonomy
A faceted taxonomy is used when topics are classified into several separate groups.Websites that frequently utilize this layout enable users to browse content by sorting for particular criteria. For instance, an online clothing shop selling various products has many categories and subcategories. If a user searches for a black dress, the result may also appear in other searches, like dresses on sale if the item is also on sale.

Best Practices for Building Website Taxonomy

Below are some of the best SEO practices you can use to build your site structure.

Choose an appropriate structure for your website and audience.

You can push your material into any taxonomy structure that you like. However, it is not the best thing you can do for your website, audience, or search engine rankings.

Choosing a decent site architecture that makes sense for your website and your audience is one of the most critical steps in developing your website's taxonomy.

Develop a category structure for your content.

It's ideal for categorizing your content immediately using a predetermined list of broad groups. Whether you're using a lateral taxonomy or a hierarchical one, this method is vital.

Understanding how your material relates to other content on your website is crucial, even if you are not using taxonomic categories to organize it. This method will assist you in creating a more effective site structure.

Do keyword research.

You should ensure you have the data you need to retain your audience on your website.

Although you can use the main objective of your site to rank in search results, it's crucial to have a variety of keywords for the other categories you'll add to your site.

These keywords should be relevant to the information users discover on your pages.

Have a dedicated team to build your site taxonomy.

Developing a taxonomy takes time, even more so if you're trying to revamp an existing website.

A dedicated team to design your taxonomy is necessary if you're serious about SEO. You could also look for external assistance for your site taxonomy.

SEOLeverage™️ can help you get the SEO results you desire.

Consistency is the key.

It's easier for site visitors to understand your website when the categories and information are consistent. It also makes it simpler for the team responsible for carrying out your content strategy to produce pertinent material.

Consistency is crucial for SEO since bots dislike and view disorganized websites as spammy. Additionally, bots are trained to index your website for specific search queries and to recognize contextual linkages between categories and content.

Make room for expansion.

As your company grows, taxonomy can and should change.

To ensure that categories still relate to one another and have space for new information, you might need to rearrange the categories if you add new forms of content.

Depending on user input, you might also discover that some categories and subcategories aren't as apparent as anticipated. It is crucial to learn what functions well and does not for site visitors.

Invest in Your Website Taxonomy

Taxonomy creation takes time, but it will help your website long term.

Your marketing strategy must include developing and upkeep a successful website taxonomy understandable to users and search engines.

A structured taxonomy will help your website rank highly in search query results, particularly if other aspects of your site are already optimized for other SEO ranking criteria.

It will help with topical relevance and focus and ensure that search engines find your content how you desire. It also helps establish topical authority.

If you desire to increase your SEO value, SEOLeverage™️ offers services to help your website grow.