site map design template
Create a logical map based on your current pages
If you are in the process of redesigning your current site, you can check and see if your site structure currently has depth issues. Use the site measurement tools to check your site and then go to the structure section and open the depth report.
Create a logical map based on your current pages
This report usually shows the distribution of links based on their distance from your home page. First, categorize the report so that only 200 pages of code show the status of the HTML pages by applying the bottom categorization.
Create a logical map based on your current pages
This will remove all the photos, javascript files and other types of links that you don’t need to measure in this section.
Create a logical map based on your current pages
Depending on the complexity of your site, you may see the numbers go up to three or four clicks away from the home page and then quickly return. In general, you should not have a page that is more than 6 clicks away from the main page. This leads to fewer visits from both visitors and search engine bots.
It is also important to check if you have an unattended page on your site. Orphan pages are those that do not have internal backlinks and it is impossible for those who browse the site to access them. You can check this in the Ahrefs Site Audit tool. Just make sure to add sitemaps and backlinks to source URLs in the project settings.
Orphan Pages
After the site is checked, open the Page Explorer and apply the bottom filter to the previously used classification.
After the site is checked, open Page Explorer
If you find a valuable page in this section, you should link to it from your other pages. Once you’ve identified these problems, it’s time to visualize the structure. Write it based on the information you have obtained so far:
- Pages that are critical to your business (home page, about us, contact information, features, solutions)
- Subfolders and pages that work well for your competitors
- Depth problems and unattended pages
- Product categories if you use Google Ads
You may have built the entire structure of your site up to this point, but most likely you have left some pages and don’t have much data to back it up. The next step is this problem solves
