In­form­a­tion Ar­chi­tec­ture

In computer science, the term “in­form­a­tion ar­chi­tec­ture” refers to the clas­si­fic­a­tion, labelling, and struc­tur­ing of in­form­a­tion. It plays an important role, es­pe­cially in designing a struc­tured website. Web designers just have to name in­di­vidu­al topics or products and then assign them to semantic cat­egor­ies. These cat­egor­ies then form the main com­pon­ents of a website hierarchy, which makes it easier for users to orient them­selves and for page operators to work. An organised structure and flat hier­arch­ies also ensure good website rankings on search engines. But what elements are the most important when it comes to in­form­a­tion ar­chi­tec­ture, and where did the term originate?

In­form­a­tion ar­chi­tec­ture (IA) is common in intranet and database system design, and the term also used to come up often in con­nec­tion with chip design. The first record of the term “ar­chi­tec­ture” when referring to in­form­a­tion tech­no­logy dates back to 1959. Frederick P. Brooks and Lyle Johnson explained the structure of the stretch su­per­com­puter using thieterm. Richard Saul Wurman then coined the term “In­form­a­tion Architect” in 1976 in a lecture he gave at the American Institute of Ar­chi­tects in Wash­ing­ton D.C. However, the actual origin of the field lies in library science: the cat­egor­isa­tion and archiving of in­form­a­tion, as well as its avail­ab­il­ity, are basic building blocks of the library system, and are also used in IA.

Another sci­entif­ic field that has related elements is cognitive psy­cho­logy. This examines the human brain’s in­form­a­tion pro­cessing and decision-making methods. To create a user-friendly website design, it helps to un­der­stand how users mentally search for and store in­form­a­tion. Effective in­form­a­tion ar­chi­tec­ture divides a website into cat­egor­ies and sub­cat­egor­ies, and assigns the paths to in­di­vidu­al pages in such a way that visitors can reach the desired in­form­a­tion in­tu­it­ively in just a few clicks.

Ar­chi­tec­ture as visual art gives the term its symbolism: it means giving a website a solid found­a­tion that fits the content and works ef­fect­ively with the website.

The struc­tur­al design of a website is a multi-level process that involves various tasks. Good in­form­a­tion ar­chi­tec­ture begins even before the website is designed.

Before designing a website, it is important to find out what potential visitors will be looking for. Using a keyword research tool can help you find out how relevant a par­tic­u­lar term is for a par­tic­u­lar target group. Also, the absolute search volume and the number of com­pet­it­ors who also want to rank highly for this keyword play an important role. Relevance to the audience reflects whether the keyword fits them­at­ic­ally on the page. A high search volume promises a lot of traffic, but usually goes hand in hand with an equally high number of com­pet­it­ors. The more com­pet­i­tion there is, the more you will have to optimise your keywords to get ahead of the crowds. Al­tern­at­ively, you can rely on less popular search terms (long-tail keywords), provided that they match the content. The keywords found can then be grouped according to im­port­ance and topic af­fil­i­ation to different cat­egor­ies.

In­form­a­tion ar­chi­tec­ture is rep­res­en­ted by the above example of two online shops. While the site Master Gardener (MG) decided to search for keywords according to three main cat­egor­ies, the site Master Baker (MB) has five het­ero­gen­eous thematic groups. Since MG has fewer major cat­egor­ies, they are more extensive. The path from the main category to the product page goes through several steps which reduce the subject area. To get from the domain to the product, just four clicks are needed. Search engine crawlers no longer browse every sub­cat­egory of a website, as it is too time consuming. Therefore, product pages that feature a website’s main offerings rarely end up being con­sidered in rankings. 

On the other hand, the MB page is struc­tured so that the broad cat­egor­ies allow you to navigate to the bottom of the hierarchy in just two clicks. This is not just an advantage when it comes to search engine indexing, it also gives visitors an easier-to-un­der­stand page, which results in a better user ex­per­i­ence. The MB example also shows that product pages or sub­cat­egor­ies can be assigned to more than one main category. The paths to the search target are based on semantic linking chains that a user would most likely use. 

It also takes into account that users can access the in­form­a­tion for different reasons. The path: Master baker à In­gredi­ents à Candy melts assumes that a larger purchase may be made, which includes flavors and other in­gredi­ents in addition to the sugar product. The path Master baker à Glazing and icing à Candy melts on the other hand, focuses on the search for the different products that surround the baked goods.

Thanks to the MB website’s in­form­a­tion ar­chi­tec­ture, nav­ig­at­ing to find the product you are looking for can be done in two ways. This means that the in­form­a­tion page for Candy melts can be found in­tu­it­ively for users with different ap­proaches. A third way is through the search function in­teg­rated in the website. This way is primarily used by visitors who already have a specific product in mind and want to go directly to the product page. Another way is the direct entry on the bottom of Candy melts, since this is displayed as a search result in the search engines when users look spe­cific­ally for the product.

A bread­crumb (Homepage » Glazing and icing » Candy melts) on the product page helps the visitor navigate the page and quickly access higher-level cat­egor­ies if needed. The more op­por­tun­it­ies users have to get to the in­form­a­tion they need quickly and in­tu­it­ively, the more they value the pages’ usability, and the greater the potential time and like­li­hood of closing a deal (con­ver­sion rate). The nav­ig­a­tion design plays an important role here.

Website nav­ig­a­tion is a re­flec­tion of in­form­a­tion ar­chi­tec­ture. There are two ap­proaches to arranging subject areas: the top-down approach assumes that users find website offers from the first page. Therefore, the most popular keyword cat­egor­ies are featured together on the homepage, from where all other content derived. The bottom-up approach, on the hand, assumes that users enter the site by searching for a par­tic­u­lar term. Therefore, nav­ig­at­ing from a subpage to any other point should be easy and intuitive. Bread­crumbs, or fixed nav­ig­a­tion points on each page leading back to the main cat­egor­ies help.

The category Bakeware gets the page ID 1.0. The IDs of the sub­cat­egor­ies “muffin moulds”, “cake moulds” etc. are sub­or­din­ated with the des­ig­na­tions 1.n. The muffin moulds sub­cat­egory is high­lighted because the example shows the cor­res­pond­ing category page. The image fields to the right refer to the in­di­vidu­al product pages with page IDs 1.1.1 to 1.1.12. The numbering reflects the hierarchy within the cat­egor­ies that makes the wireframe virtually invisible. The layout moves from the main cat­egor­ies on the left, to the sub cat­egor­ies in the middle, to the in­di­vidu­al products on the right.

The logo is at the top, at the head of the layout. There are also links to basic functions, such as login and a search bar. Contact, legal, and further in­form­a­tion about the company are in the footer. Even buttons and input fields for an e-mail address are found in the wireframe. However, the concept does not include the full func­tion­al­ity or the finished design of the website. The page structure is in the fore­ground of the prototype. Depending on the pri­or­it­ies of the website operator, it can be created as a result of in­di­vidu­al modi­fic­a­tions to be a well-struc­tured, beau­ti­fully designed user-friendly website.

Labelling links allows a fixed as­sign­ment of each subpage. A URL should be il­lus­trat­ive, so try to use the main keyword of each page. Start off with the domain name, which should be as short and memorable as possible. As a rep­res­ent­at­ive of the brand, the best idea is to pick a name related to the topic, ideally the main keyword. In our example of the bottom “Muffin moulds” the domain (“master baker”), main category (“baking molds”) and sub­cat­egory (“muffin moulds”) results in a solid structure for the link marketing https.www.mas­ter­baker.com/bak­ing­moulds/muffin­moulds. This kind of static URL does not change as content is updated, unlike a dynamic URL. The advantage of a dynamic URL is that content can easily reach the page via the back end without much format­ting. When viewed by search engines however, a dynamic URL is at a dis­ad­vant­age because it lacks a con­nec­tion to its content through the keyword.    It can be hard to find a fresh, new domain that is not already taken, es­pe­cially for a website dealing with a topic that has a high search volume. There are different ways to acquire a domain. If the domain name you are looking for is already taken, you can offer to buy it from the current owner. You will find plenty more tips on domains in the IONOS Digital Guide.

By grouping single pages into cat­egor­ies and sub­cat­egor­ies, you create mean­ing­ful topic channels from the domain to each piece of in­form­a­tion. The page hierarchy should be traceable in the URL. Make your URL demon­strat­ive and static so that search engine crawlers have an easier time indexing them. It will also help users remember the address. You can help users to orient them­selves with a good visible rep­res­ent­a­tion of their current location on the website (“sense of place”), using tools like bread­crumbs and an easy-to-un­der­stand path through different cat­egor­ies and sub­cat­egor­ies (“in­form­a­tion scent”). There should always be at least two options: a direct search bar is a good option for users who know exactly what in­form­a­tion they are looking for. Taking a path through related main cat­egor­ies with flat hier­arch­ies is useful for users who wish to browse through the website, but also still find relevant in­form­a­tion quickly. If these main pages and cat­egor­ies fit into more than one parent category, web de­velopers can create their own URL using the canonical tag, which then signals to search engines that the original entry is on a different URL. This means that you avoid being punished for du­plic­at­ing content. In addition to grouping, they also create metadata for each subpage so that they can be found by filtering through smaller, easier-to-find groups.

A good search engine ranking is the ultimate goal of SEO. The basic building blocks of search engine op­tim­isa­tion are off page and on page op­tim­isa­tion. SEO experts achieve off page op­tim­isa­tion through so-called backlinks (links from trust­worthy sources to their own website). Partner pages refer to the relevant page as a further source of in­form­a­tion or a suitable offer.

However, on page SEO is more important in terms of a website’s in­form­a­tion ar­chi­tec­ture. This includes all measures that can be im­ple­men­ted directly on your own page to improve a ranking. The focus is on writing high-quality texts that provide users with com­pre­hens­ive in­form­a­tion on a website’s topic. These texts are created by SEO editors after con­duct­ing a keyword search. The in­form­a­tion ar­chi­tec­ture struc­tures the framework of a website for the same search engine optimised keywords. It also provides a way to the desired in­form­a­tion through thematic channels. Clear web page ar­chi­tec­ture with il­lus­trat­ive URLs helps search engine crawlers connect the generated content to a frame.

                Example: mas­ter­baker.com/Glazing-Icing/Candy-Melts/

As seen in the example, the site has a re­l­at­ively short domain name that matches the keyword, as well as a trusted domain extension. The cat­egor­ies are se­mantic­ally linked and can speak for them­selves. The most important keywords are included in the link. An SEO text picks up this and other se­mantic­ally linked keywords to add mul­ti­func­tion­al content to the page. If the content and link match, this pos­it­ively affects the ranking. Flexible ar­chi­tec­ture also makes it possible to expand the site with new cat­egor­ies.