subject: How Website Architecture Affects Internet Marketing Strategies [print this page] The architecture of a website is a fundamental element of an internet marketing strategy, supporting various marketing strategies from organic search to pay-per-click programs and email marketing. Good site architecture is essential to increasing traffic to a website and successfully converting this traffic into qualified leads, sales or support.
One of the main considerations of any web architect is to make a website search engine-friendly. The site must be structured and organized in a very precise way to make it rank well in search engine results. Even the names of files and directories have an effect on search engine rankings and must be descriptive and concise to increase relevancy.
Search engine spiders are likely to skip fully indexing sites that are too deep, meaning those sites with more than four levels in the hierarchy. When there are flaws in the site architecture, the result is poor site placement in search engine result pages or SERPS. What this means is your potential customers or target audience is not seeing your site come up in results when they are searching for your offerings or your site is way down the list.
Needless to say, efficient website architecture makes effective internet marketing possible. Without it, potential visitors may never even get to your site. However, placing well in SERPS is just half of the picture. A website needs to do more than just attract visitors. It must be intuitive and easy to use to make visitors want to stay and interact with the site.
Studies showed that the more a website engages a visitor, the more likely he or she will respond favorably to the site's call to action whether it's to purchase a product, sign up for a cause, or some other desired action. Page layout, graphics, navigation are all part of website architecture and how they are designed and organized determine the site's user-friendliness, which is key to engaging and converting visitors.
For companies offering web-based applications, the principles of site architecture also applies. Web application architecture is very crucial for companies that are in this type of business since users are accessing and using their actual product online so any flaws in the architecture will lead to poor user experience and will have an immediate effect on the success of the application.
