Information Architecture & Internal Linking
Plan the structure first: clear URLs, sensible navigation, breadcrumbs, and link hubs that help users and crawlers.
Structure that scales and gets discovered
I design your site’s IA and internal linking so people (and search engines) reach key pages in as few clicks as possible. That means logical URL hierarchies, primary/secondary navigation that mirrors real user journeys, and link hubs that consolidate authority without creating loops or orphan pages.
Deliverables include a practical URL map, navigation model, canonical and redirect rules, and breadcrumb patterns that integrate cleanly with your theme.
What’s Included
URL Hierarchy
Slug conventions, folder structure, and naming aligned to services, locations, and categories.
Navigation Model
Primary/secondary menus, footer links, and utility nav that reflect real user paths.
Breadcrumbs
Consistent trail patterns and JSON-LD where relevant for better context and discovery.
Internal Link Flow
Hub pages, related links, and depth reduction without circular routes or cannibalization.
Canonical & Redirects
Canonical rules, 301 mapping, querystring handling, and duplicate elimination.
Sitemaps & Robots
XML sitemap organization, index splitting if needed, and safe robots directives.
Technical Approach
- Information scent first: route design that mirrors how users search and decide.
- Click-depth targets for key pages; avoid orphaning with contextual and hub links.
- Consistent slug patterns; lowercase, hyphenated, human-readable, and future-proofed.
- Breadcrumb schema (JSON-LD) and semantic landmarks for assistive tech.
- Canonical strategy across parameters, pagination, archives, and near-duplicate templates.
- 301 plan for migrations: preserve equity, avoid chains, map legacy URLs precisely.
- XML sitemaps grouped by type (pages, posts, products) and capped for size.
- Robots and HTTP header rules that align with caching/CDN and security headers.
Common Scenarios
New Build or Rebrand
Define a scalable structure before design, so adding pages later stays clean.
Cleanup & Migration
Reduce click depth, fix duplicates, and map 301s from legacy URLs safely.
Map the Site. Then Build.
Share your pages and goals — I’ll design the IA and link strategy and hand you a clear plan to implement.