By Sue Blatchford, Head of Search, PayPerClick

Table of Contents
Introduction
Identify Your Web Site Goals
Understanding Your target Audience
Review the Competition
Plan for the Future
Keeping Up-to-date
Understanding the Power of Relevant Content
Choosing Navigation Models
The Importance of Navigation Labels
How do you plan to Market Your Site?
Building the Web Site Architecture
Small Business - Planning Your Own Architecture
Case Study - Basic Web Site Architecture - Miller Heiman Skills Farm
Case Study - Ecommerce Web Site Architecture - Indulge Fashion
Metrics for Success

If you are in the market to get a web site built for your business or product it really pays to spend some time planning your "web site architecture". Information architecture is the structural plan or map that is used to build a web site. It can  be a simple spreadsheet or word document that lists the navigation and pages, or a complex diagram that outlines detailed functionality requirements.

Too often people are in such a hurry to get a site live that they end up with a site that doesn’t meet the needs of the business or intended audience. This is often a disappointing result and one that can be difficult and costly to rectify.

No matter how small or large you intend your web site to be; planning could be the essential key to success.

Identify Your Web Site Goals
The first step in planning your information architecture is to identify your web site goals. What does your business want to achieve by investing in a web presence and how can you ensure that you get a return on your investment? What are the outcomes and actions that will determine the success metrics?

An example list of goals could be to:

• Generate an online sale
• Generate a lead
• Browse an online catalogue
• Download a PDF
• Fill in a registration form
• Build a database of subscriptions
• Create an online forum
• Contact you.

Once you have a full list of your goals it will be easier to determine what pages will be needed in your architecture and what functionality the site will require. For example, if you are planning transactions online you will require an ecommerce facility.

Understanding Your Target Audience

Take some time to understand who are your intended audience or potential customers. Break them into different groups and prioritise and plan how you will address their different needs. Consider the goals that the audience will want from visiting the site. Also consider what barriers they may have, such as security, or quality, so you can also address all of their concerns. What is the common language that the different audience types use when searching for your products or services? Ensure that you cater for this in planning your navigation and web page headings.

Understanding your target audience is a crucial step in planning the site. Large corporations will make a significant investment in developing target audience profiles, commonly referred to as personals, exploring all the different scenarios that users may expect when interacting with a site. No matter how small your intended site is, this crucial step will ensure that your site can service the expectations of your visitors.

Review the Competition
A great way to get ideas is to understand what your visitors may expect is to review competing sites. Look carefully at their navigation, the language and the layout of the site, and evaluate what is working and what you could do better. Do some searches on Google for your product or services and review sites that are getting good natural search rankings. Look at their navigation labels and the structure of the site.

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