1. Website Architecture 1
Running head: WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE IMPACT
Exercise 3: Website Architecture and Its Impact on SEO
Benin Brown
Full Sail University
2. Website Architecture 2
Exercise 3: Website Architecture and Its Impact on SEO
In Richard Baxter's piece entitled, "Diagnose Critical Website Architecture Issues
for SEO (2009)" Mr. Baxter described how website architecture can impact a web site’s
performance in the search engines.
The article is relevant to Internet marketers because there are instances in which
website architecture problems cannot only adversely affect site findability but also user
experience.
Flat Site Architecture
Baxter opens the article by highlighting the necessity for building flat architecture
into web site design. This part of Baxter's argument can be summarized by saying that
sound website design calls for a minimal amount of page layers between the homepage or
top page and the deepest level page within the site. This is also known as flat
architecture. There are two primary benefits derived from having a flat architecture:
• Fewer pages to crawl mean that important information will be easer for the search
engines to reach (Harris, 2007).
• The easier it is for site users to get to the bottom of the site map, the more likely
users will remain on that path instead of abandoning it.
3. Website Architecture 3
Broken Links
Next Baxter addresses broken links as a threat to local SEO efforts. Baxter did
not provide information on why broken links can harm SEO. However, it is understood
that search engines see broken links as dead pages and this can damage the quality score
of the landing page or page linking to the non existent page (More Visibility, 2007).
Additionally, the search engines ask web site creators to not publish content containing
broken links.
Server Header Problems
A large part of SEO is developing web sites that are able to properly communicate
to the search engines. Baxter addressed this topic by discussing server header responses.
His suggestion is that search engine marketers check every single response code to ensure
that the website’s server doesn’t send out codes that confuse search engines. For
instance, if a web site has a 404 page that isn’t actually sending the proper 404 response
codes to the search engines, then the search engines might index the 404 pages. Upon the
search engine determining that a page that should have been coded as a 404 page was not
coded the search engine may choose to give the site a lower search ranking (Boggs,
2008).
4. Website Architecture 4
Duplicate Content
The next topic that Baxter visited was duplicate content. He cited this as one of
the most important elements of SEO. The main problem with duplicate content is that by
spreading (Ohye, 2007) links across several versions of the same page duplicate pages
can diminish the link popularity of the original or canonical page.
Canonical Redirects
Baxter also suggests that users check their sites to learn whether their sites are
indexed with and without the “www”. If both versions are indexed the solution is to set
up the canonical tag, which is also referred to as the 301-redirect tag. The URLs’ that
don’t start with “www” should be permanently redirected to the original page that begins
with “www”. Alternatively, a web master may need to move her site to a new domain
(Enge, n.d.). In doing so if the 301-redirect is not used a duplicate content problem might
arise and prevent the new site from getting its proper ranking. Utilizing the canonical tag
would therefore be appropriate in this instance, as well.
5. Website Architecture 5
References
Are broken links sinking your site? (2007, April 19). More Visibility. Retrieved March
20, 2010, from http://www.morevisibility.com/seoblog/broken-links.html
Baxter, R. (2009, April 10). Diagnose critical website architecture issues for SEO. Search
Engine Journal. Retrieved March 17, 2010, from
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-website-architecture-issues/9760/
Boggs, C. (2008, September 26). Common problems with 404 error pages. Search Engine
Marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Paid Search Advertising
(PPC) - Search Engine Watch (SEW). Retrieved March 21, 2010, from
http://searchenginewatch.com/3631002
Enge, E. (n.d.). 301 Redirects. Strategic SEO planning, technical SEO and link building.
Retrieved March 20, 2010, from http://www.stonetemple.com/articles/301-
redirects.shtml
Harris, S. (2007, July 6). Flat site architecture is SEO-friendly. Big Oak SEO Company.
Retrieved March 19, 2010, from http://www.bigoakinc.com/blog/flat-site-
architecture-is-seo-friendly
Ohye, M. (2007, September 12). Google, duplicate content caused by URL parameters,
and you. Official Google Webmaster Central Blog. Retrieved March 17, 2010,
from http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/09/google-duplicate-
content-caused-by-url.html
