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Skillsiblai-marketing-site-architecture

iblai-marketing-site-architecture

Marketing & growth

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Updated 10-15 22:16

About this skill

/iblai-marketing-site-architecture

Plan website structure — page hierarchy, navigation, URL patterns, internal linking — so the site is intuitive for users and optimized for search.

Step 0: Context Check

Read .agents/product-marketing-context.md (or .claude/product-marketing-context.md on older setups) first. Only ask for what isn't there.

Pull this context:

1. Business Context

  • What the company does
  • Primary audiences
  • Top 3 goals for the site (conversions, SEO traffic, education, support)

2. Current State

  • New site or restructure?
  • If restructuring: what's broken? (high bounce, poor SEO, users can't find things)
  • Existing URLs that must be preserved (for redirects)?

3. Site Type

  • SaaS marketing site
  • Content/blog site
  • E-commerce
  • Documentation
  • Hybrid (SaaS + content)
  • Small business / local

4. Content Inventory

  • Pages existing or planned
  • Most important pages (by traffic, conversions, or business value)
  • Planned sections or expansions

Site Types and Starting Points

Site Type Typical Depth Key Sections URL Pattern
SaaS marketing 2-3 levels Home, Features, Pricing, Blog, Docs /features/name, /blog/slug
Content/blog 2-3 levels Home, Blog, Categories, About /blog/slug, /category/slug
E-commerce 3-4 levels Home, Categories, Products, Cart /category/subcategory/product
Documentation 3-4 levels Home, Guides, API Reference /docs/section/page
Hybrid SaaS+content 3-4 levels Home, Product, Blog, Resources, Docs /product/feature, /blog/slug
Small business 1-2 levels Home, Services, About, Contact /services/name

Full page hierarchy templates: references/site-type-templates.md.

Page Hierarchy Design

The 3-Click Rule

Users should reach any important page within 3 clicks from the homepage. Not absolute — but if critical pages are buried 4+ levels deep, something is wrong.

Flat vs. Deep

Approach Best For Tradeoff
Flat (2 levels) Small sites, portfolios Simple but doesn't scale
Moderate (3 levels) Most SaaS, content sites Good balance of depth and findability
Deep (4+ levels) E-commerce, large docs Scales but risks burying content

Rule of thumb: as flat as possible while keeping navigation clean. If a nav dropdown has 20+ items, add a level of hierarchy.

Hierarchy Levels

Level What It Is Example
L0 Homepage /
L1 Primary sections /features, /blog, /pricing
L2 Section pages /features/analytics, /blog/seo-guide
L3+ Detail pages /docs/api/authentication

ASCII Tree Format

Use this format for page hierarchies:

Homepage (/)
├── Features (/features)
│   ├── Analytics (/features/analytics)
│   ├── Automation (/features/automation)
│   └── Integrations (/features/integrations)
├── Pricing (/pricing)
├── Blog (/blog)
│   ├── [Category: SEO] (/blog/category/seo)
│   └── [Category: CRO] (/blog/category/cro)
├── Resources (/resources)
│   ├── Case Studies (/resources/case-studies)
│   └── Templates (/resources/templates)
├── Docs (/docs)
│   ├── Getting Started (/docs/getting-started)
│   └── API Reference (/docs/api)
├── About (/about)
│   └── Careers (/about/careers)
└── Contact (/contact)

When to use ASCII vs. Mermaid:

  • ASCII: quick hierarchy drafts, text-only contexts, simple structures
  • Mermaid: visual presentations, complex relationships, nav zones or linking patterns

Navigation Design

Navigation Types

Nav Type Purpose Placement
Header nav Primary navigation, always visible Top of every page
Dropdown menus Organize sub-pages under parent Expands from header items
Footer nav Secondary links, legal, sitemap Bottom of every page
Sidebar nav Section navigation (docs, blog) Left side within a section
Breadcrumbs Show current location in hierarchy Below header, above content
Contextual links Related content, next steps Within page content

Header Navigation Rules

  • 4-7 items max in primary nav (more causes decision paralysis)
  • CTA button goes rightmost (e.g., "Start Free Trial," "Get Started")
  • Logo links to homepage (left side)
  • Order by priority — most important/visited pages first
  • If using a mega menu, cap at 3-4 columns

Footer Organization

Group footer links into columns:

  • Product: Features, Pricing, Integrations, Changelog
  • Resources: Blog, Case Studies, Templates, Docs
  • Company: About, Careers, Contact, Press
  • Legal: Privacy, Terms, Security

Breadcrumb Format

Home > Features > Analytics
Home > Blog > SEO Category > Post Title

Breadcrumbs mirror the URL hierarchy. Every segment is a clickable link except the current page.

Detailed navigation patterns: references/navigation-patterns.md.

URL Structure

Design Principles

  1. Readable by humans — /features/analytics, not /f/a123
  2. Hyphens, not underscores — /blog/seo-guide, not /blog/seo_guide
  3. Reflect the hierarchy — URL path matches site structure
  4. Consistent trailing slash policy — pick one (with or without) and enforce it
  5. Lowercase always — /About redirects to /about
  6. Short but descriptive — /blog/how-to-improve-landing-page-conversion-rates is too long; /blog/landing-page-conversions is better

URL Patterns by Page Type

Page Type Pattern Example
Homepage / example.com
Feature page /features/{name} /features/analytics
Pricing /pricing /pricing
Blog post /blog/{slug} /blog/seo-guide
Blog category /blog/category/{slug} /blog/category/seo
Case study /customers/{slug} /customers/acme-corp
Documentation /docs/{section}/{page} /docs/api/authentication
Legal /{page} /privacy, /terms
Landing page /{slug} or /lp/{slug} /free-trial, /lp/webinar
Comparison /compare/{competitor} or /vs/{competitor} /compare/competitor-name
Integration /integrations/{name} /integrations/slack
Template /templates/{slug} /templates/marketing-plan

Common Mistakes

  • Dates in blog URLs — /blog/2024/01/15/post-title adds no value. Use /blog/post-title.
  • Over-nesting — /products/category/subcategory/item/detail is too deep. Flatten where possible.
  • Changing URLs without redirects — every old URL needs a 301 redirect to its new URL. Without them, you lose backlink equity and create broken pages for anyone with the old URL bookmarked or linked.
  • IDs in URLs — /product/12345 is not human-readable. Use slugs.
  • Query parameters for content — /blog?id=123 should be /blog/post-title.
  • Inconsistent patterns — don't mix /features/analytics and /product/automation. Pick one parent.

Breadcrumb-URL Alignment

The breadcrumb trail mirrors the URL path:

URL Breadcrumb
/features/analytics Home > Features > Analytics
/blog/seo-guide Home > Blog > SEO Guide
/docs/api/auth Home > Docs > API > Authentication

Visual Sitemap Output (Mermaid)

Use Mermaid graph TD for visual sitemaps. Makes hierarchy clear and can annotate navigation zones.

Basic Hierarchy

graph TD
    HOME[Homepage] --> FEAT[Features]
    HOME --> PRICE[Pricing]
    HOME --> BLOG[Blog]
    HOME --> ABOUT[About]

    FEAT --> F1[Analytics]
    FEAT --> F2[Automation]
    FEAT --> F3[Integrations]

    BLOG --> B1[Post 1]
    BLOG --> B2[Post 2]

With Navigation Zones

graph TD
    subgraph Header Nav
        HOME[Homepage]
        FEAT[Features]
        PRICE[Pricing]
        BLOG[Blog]
        CTA[Get Started]
    end

    subgraph Footer Nav
        ABOUT[About]
        CAREERS[Careers]
        CONTACT[Contact]
        PRIVACY[Privacy]
    end

    HOME --> FEAT
    HOME --> PRICE
    HOME --> BLOG
    HOME --> ABOUT

    FEAT --> F1[Analytics]
    FEAT --> F2[Automation]

More Mermaid templates: references/mermaid-templates.md.

Internal Linking Strategy

Link Types

Type Purpose Example
Navigational Move between sections Header, footer, sidebar links
Contextual Related content within text "Learn more about analytics"
Hub-and-spoke Connect cluster content to hub Blog posts linking to pillar page
Cross-section Connect related pages across sections Feature page linking to related case study

Internal Linking Rules

  1. No orphan pages — every page has at least one internal link pointing to it
  2. Descriptive anchor text — "our analytics features," not "click here"
  3. 5-10 internal links per 1000 words of content (approximate)
  4. Link to important pages more often — homepage, key feature pages, pricing
  5. Use breadcrumbs — free internal links on every page
  6. Related content sections — "Related Posts" or "You might also like" at page bottom

Hub-and-Spoke Model

For content-heavy sites, organize around hub pages:

Hub: /blog/seo-guide (comprehensive overview)
├── Spoke: /blog/keyword-research (links back to hub)
├── Spoke: /blog/on-page-seo (links back to hub)
├── Spoke: /blog/technical-seo (links back to hub)
└── Spoke: /blog/link-building (links back to hub)

Each spoke links back to the hub. The hub links to all spokes. Spokes link to each other where relevant.

Link Audit Checklist

  • Every page has at least one inbound internal link
  • No broken internal links (404s)
  • Anchor text is descriptive (not "click here" or "read more")
  • Important pages have the most inbound internal links
  • Breadcrumbs implemented on all pages
  • Related content links exist on blog posts
  • Cross-section links connect features to case studies, blog to product pages

Output Format

When delivering a site architecture plan, ship:

1. Page Hierarchy (ASCII Tree)

Full site structure with URLs at each node. Use the ASCII tree format above.

2. Visual Sitemap (Mermaid)

Mermaid diagram showing page relationships and navigation zones. Use graph TD with subgraphs for nav zones where helpful.

3. URL Map Table

Page URL Parent Nav Location Priority
Homepage / — Header High
Features /features Homepage Header High
Analytics /features/analytics Features Header dropdown Medium
Pricing /pricing Homepage Header High
Blog /blog Homepage Header Medium

4. Navigation Spec

  • Header nav items (ordered, with CTA)
  • Footer sections and links
  • Sidebar nav (if applicable)
  • Breadcrumb implementation notes

5. Internal Linking Plan

  • Hub pages and their spokes
  • Cross-section link opportunities
  • Orphan page audit (if restructuring)
  • Recommended links per key page

Task-Specific Questions

  1. New site or restructure?
  2. Site type? (SaaS, content, e-commerce, docs, hybrid, small business.)
  3. Pages existing or planned?
  4. Top 5 most important pages?
  5. Existing URLs to preserve or redirect?
  6. Primary audiences and what they're trying to accomplish?

Related Skills

  • iblai-marketing-content-strategy: Planning what content to create and topic clusters
  • iblai-marketing-programmatic-seo: Building SEO pages at scale with templates and data
  • iblai-marketing-seo-audit: Technical SEO, on-page optimization, indexation issues
  • iblai-marketing-page-cro: Optimizing individual pages for conversion
  • iblai-marketing-schema-markup: Breadcrumb and site navigation structured data
  • iblai-marketing-competitor-alternatives: Comparison page frameworks and URL patterns