Analyze Site Architecture

Posted on Posted in Website Design

Analysis of website architecture used to be simply organizing the information and contents into a logical presentation such that any user can easily navigate your site. The good old way is to follow the standard website category structure as follows:

  • Home
  • Products and Services
  • Portfolio / Clients
  • News / Events
  • About Us

However, this is so old, dull and 90s. Most sites nowadays has adopted Web 2.0 standards which includes more dynamic contents and allows users to collaborate with each other. Websites should not be viewed as static informational pages rather as strategic tools to get more customers and larger market share. Diagram below is a perfect expression of Web 2.0 corporate sites:

Web 2.0 Corporate Triangle

Several functionalities need to be analyzed to maximize the potential of your corporate site. They are as follows:

  • Corporate Blogs – Publish articles for your corporate identity and show your domain expertise. Use of appropriate blogging tools also increases your SEO ranking due fresh contents.
  • Support Forums – Provide online support to your customers via forums. These public forums will eventually serve as your support knowledge base and users get their support via forums.
  • Corporate Calendar – Announce corporate events and news using graphical calendar views.
  • Mailing Lists – Mailing lists need to be targetted based on user profiles. Never send irrelevant emails to reduce spam.
  • Community – Build a community to increase loyalty of your users. As part of a community, users have a reason to regularly check your site for messages, company updates and events.
  • User Profiles – Provide user registration and log user activities. This will give you user specific statistics and personalized service.
  • Online Services – Change your business by giving online services and support online purchases. Online services should be recorded to give you more information about your customers and improve your customer profiling.

By providing the above functionalities, companies build an online identity, support knowledge base and customer profiles. This is essential to any company or business – online identity ensures you protect your brand and public image, support knowledge base improves your customer support and decreases your operational support cost, and most importantly, customer profiles allow you to understand your customer and market needs to better improve your products and services.

In addition, Seach Engine Optimization (SEO) also needs to be considered. When analyzing and designing web sites, consider your market and how customers will find you. In the new world of internet search, you need to know your keywords. Aside from this, know your partners for link building and study your competitors. Keep in mind that SEO is a continuing effort, it takes time and effort to build your search credentials and even more to maintain it.

Finally, take a look at the technologies involved? Consider answering the following questions:

  • What are the web tools needed (php, Flash, Ruby on Rails, java, etc)?
  • Do you have a domain name?
  • Who will be your hosting provider?
  • What is the bandwidth, server space, etc?

In conclusion, analyzing site architecture may involve more than just organizing contents. This also requires user, market and technology analysis.

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