subject: Definition of Web Architecture [print this page] In layman's terms, web site architecture, or web architecture, is a method of planning and designing web sites in which, like in architecture itself, involves technicalities, aesthetics and functionality. Also, like in architecture, the user and the user's requirements and prerequisites are in the top priorities of creating a web site.
And because of having complex criteria, web architecture requires specific consideration to web content, business plan and coordination, usability and functionality, interactivity aesthetics, information structure and web design.
Also, efficient search engine optimization, or SEO, is necessary to put a web site within the rankings of popular sites visited in the World Wide Web. Having an effective SEO services in web architecture is a good advantage for in the web site industry, for search engine optimization is a standard service.
As for web content development, stages of planning, design and management come within the range of web design methods, the traditional design aspects of consistency, firmness and delight within each content to be published can guide the architecture of web sites, as they apply physical web architecture and other design principles. Web site architecture is delving within the scopes of aesthetics and critical theory, and this trend may accelerate with the introduction of semantic web and Web 2.0. Both of the ideas accentuate the structural and visual aspects of the content inside a web site.
Structuralism, an essential part in web architecture, is a methodological approach that influences several theoretical disciplines such as aesthetics, critical theory and postmodernism. Having the mentioned disciplines on the helm of any web site creation, Web 2.0, involving user-generated content, gives guidance to the web architect to the proper structuring of each piece of information for the browser's convenience and satisfaction.
Web architecture has the possibility to be a term for the structural and aesthetical discipline of setting up a web site and its content. Web design, on contrast with web site architecture, sets on the applied responsibilities, on graphics and technicalities, in designing and publishing a web site. The comparison between the two is relative to editing a news or features publication such as newspapers and magazines, and to graphic and print designs, respectively. But the connection between editorial and production/reproduction services is much relative for web contents than in print publications.