A new website’s architecture should start from the questions and decisions of its buyers, not from an org chart. Group content into a few topic hubs based on what you sell, give each hub a clear URL folder, keep every important page within three clicks of the home page, choose page types for each kind of question, and plan internal links and breadcrumbs from the start. Getting this right before launch avoids migrations later and gives search engines and AI assistants a clear map of what the site knows.
Step 1: start from buyers’ questions
List the questions buyers ask from first research to purchase, and group them by topic. Your core topics are usually your services or product lines. See building a topic map.
Step 2: define the hubs
| Hub | Contains |
|---|---|
| Services or products | One page per offering, linked from the hub |
| Learning or resources | Guides grouped by topic pillars |
| Blog or insights | Timely articles, how-tos, news, linked into guides and services |
| Company | About, team, locations, careers, contact |
| Industries or use cases, if relevant | Pages showing how offerings fit specific buyers |
Step 3: design URLs
- Short, readable, lowercase, with hyphens: /services/technical-seo/
- Folders that reflect the hubs, one or two levels deep
- No dates in URLs for content you will update
- Decide on trailing slashes once and stick to it
Step 4: keep it shallow
Every important page should be reachable within three clicks of the home page. Deep hierarchies hide pages from users and crawlers. Hubs that link to all their pages keep the structure shallow even as the site grows.
Step 5: plan navigation and links
- Main navigation: the hubs and the most important pages, as real links
- Breadcrumbs on every page below the home page, with BreadcrumbList structured data
- Hub pages that link to every page in their topic
- Rules for in-text links: each page links up to its hub, across to related pages, and out to the relevant service
See how we structured brilad.com, which followed exactly this plan.
Step 6: choose page types
| Question type | Page type |
|---|---|
| What do you offer and what does it cost? | Service or product page |
| How does this work? | Guide |
| How do I do this? | How-to or checklist |
| Which option should I choose? | Comparison page |
| Can you do this for someone like me? | Case study or industry page |
Step 7: technical foundations
- Server-rendered pages so every crawler sees the content
- An XML sitemap generated from the structure
- Organization, WebSite and BreadcrumbList structured data sitewide
- A content model with fields for summaries, authors and dates; see content modelling
Frequently asked questions
How many pages should a new site launch with?
Enough to cover the core offering well: home, service or product pages, about, contact and a few pages answering the main buyer questions. Quality matters more than count.
Should the blog be on a subdomain?
A subfolder keeps everything on one host and is simpler to connect with the rest of the site.
Can the structure change later?
Yes, but URL changes need redirects and carry risk. Planning hubs and URLs well at the start avoids most of that.
Sources
- Google Search Central, “SEO Starter Guide” (site structure and URLs)
- Google Search Central, “Breadcrumb structured data”