Arboresence website: the rules to respect

You want a clear site that helps your visitors find the right page quickly and that gives Google an easy to read structure. It all starts with the tree. A well-thought-out website tree improves navigation, SEO, and conversion rates without the need to add more content.

The rules that change everything from the first pages

A good tree is not a technical drawing. It's a navigation logic that guides the user and an architecture that search engines effortlessly understand. When these two points are aligned, site creation becomes simpler, the design becomes more fluid, and natural referencing progresses more quickly.

Rule 1: start with the objective and the user journey

Before talking about menus, pages or categories, you have to answer a simple question. What should your users succeed in doing on the site in less than a minute.

For an SME or a small business, the objectives often come up. Understand the offer, check the credibility of the company, ask for a quote, buy a product, or find accurate information. Your website tree should put these goals at the first level of navigation, or at most one click away.

We are looking for a structure that follows the course. Arrival from Google, reading the main page, then direct access to a category or a key page, then action. This journey must remain logical, even if a user does not go through the reception.

The right question to ask yourself is this. If a visitor arrives on a service page from an internet search, can they understand the rest of your content and navigate to the next page without looking.

Rule 2: limit the depth, without oversimplifying

We often hear the three-click rule. It's not magic, but it does give a good direction. The further out of the architecture a page is, the more likely it is to be ignored by users, and the fewer internal links it receives. As a result, indexing is less effective, and SEO loses strength on important pages.

The aim is not to put everything at the same level. The aim is to prioritize intelligently.

A healthy structure often looks like this: main page, categories, then detailed pages. For an e-commerce site, we sometimes add a sub-category, but we avoid creating levels just to “tidy up”.

When you have too many levels, your menu becomes confusing, navigation becomes fragile, and users get lost. When you have too few levels, you mix different content into a single category, and the logic breaks. The right balance depends on the volume of pages and products, and especially on how your users search for information.

Rule 3: Name categories as your visitors talk

The wording of categories and pages is a detail that makes all the difference. A website tree can be good on paper and yet fail because the vocabulary is not clear.

A user is not looking for “Solutions” or “Expertise” on Google. It searches for “showcase site”, “redesign”, “maintenance”, “management software”, “restaurant menu”, according to your activity. Your navigation should speak the language of research, not that of an internal presentation.

It is also an important SEO point. When the menu, page titles, and content use words that are close to the search intent, Google better understands the structure, and search engines more easily connect pages together.

If you're hesitant, keep the rule simple. A category should be understood without context, and a page should clearly state what is going to be found there.

Rule 4: Think of the tree as a Google reading plan

Google does not “see” your site as a human. It follows internal links, analyzes the structure, and tries to understand which pages are main, which pages are secondary, and which pages are linked by common logic.

This is where architecture comes in its full value. A clear website tree helps engines to crawl your pages faster, better index content, and associate each page with a specific category.

A simple example: if you have one “Services” page and three “Service A”, “Service B”, “Service C” pages, the “Services” page should be used as an entry point. It should contain visible internal links to the detailed pages, and these pages should link back to the main page of the category. This internal networking reinforces consistency, and helps natural referencing.

On the other hand, if each page lives alone, with few internal links, you create orphan pages. They are more difficult for Google to discover, and they participate less in user navigation.

Structures that work according to your type of site

A tree cannot be copied. On the other hand, there are models that work very well, because they respect a simple logic expected by users.

Showcase site for SMEs or VSEs: the most effective structure

An efficient showcase site highlights the offer and the proof. He must respond quickly to visitors' questions and guide them in making contact.

In this type of site, the most solid web tree often follows this line:

Home, Services, Achievements or Customer Cases, About, Contact.

Then, the real optimization is played out on the service pages. Instead of a single page that combines everything, we create a main “Services” page and several dedicated pages, each linked to a clear search. This architecture helps the user to choose, and helps Google to position pages on different queries.

The menu remains short, navigation is fluid, and the journey is logical: discovery, reassurance, action.

E-commerce site: categories, products and own indexing

For a site with products, the website tree must above all avoid two pitfalls: too many subcategories, or poorly defined categories.

An effective e-commerce architecture starts with real categories, similar to how Internet users search. Then, you can add a sub-category if it makes a clear sense. Finally, we arrive at the product pages.

What matters for SEO is consistency. Each product must belong to a logical category, each category must have a page that explains the offer, and the internal network must guide to the products, but also to useful content.

Another important point concerns filters and internal navigation. If your site generates different pages for each filter, you can create hundreds of unnecessary URLs. This complicates indexing and blurs the structure for Google. The design should incorporate this topic from the start.

Content-oriented site: pillar pages and supporting content

If your strategy is based on search and natural referencing, the tree structure should organize the content like a clear library.

We start with pillar pages. These are main pages, designed for a strong theme, which summarize the subject and link to more specific pages or articles.

Then, we create supportive, more targeted content that responds to specific research. Each content links to the pillar page, and the pillar page links to the content. This internal connection builds authority, improves the user experience, and helps Google understand the architecture.

The main risk here is dispersion. Too much content without a clear category, and your pages no longer reinforce each other. A well-designed website tree avoids this problem by creating clear categories and then creating internal link logic.

The simple way to build a clear tree without getting lost

A good structure is always built in the same order. Not by opening a creation tool, not by drawing a menu, and not by starting from the design. We start with information and logic.

List the objectives and the essential pages

Start with pages that have a direct impact on the business. Pages that explain the offer, pages that convert, pages that reassure.

At this point you have to be tough. If a page does not have a clear objective, it should not be given priority in the tree.

Group content by understandable categories

A category is a natural grouping for the user. It is not a “practical” grouping.

Group pages by topic and search intent. Next, make sure that each category can be summed up in a simple word, and that the word makes sense for your visitors.

This is also where you avoid overly long menus. A main menu should remain legible. Secondary pages exist, but not all of them should appear in the main navigation.

Define hierarchy and levels

Now you have to define the line: main page, category, detail pages.

The aim is to have a stable architecture, even if you add content later. A solid website tree supports evolution. It allows you to add pages without breaking the logic.

This step is also linked to URLs. A consistent URL reflects the structure. It helps Internet users find their way around, and helps Google to understand the category of a page.

Organize internal networking from the design stage

Internal networking is not a bonus. It is a pillar.

Each main page should receive internal links from the menu and from other pages. Each content page should point to a key page. Each service or product page should be linked to its category and to useful content.

This network of internal links improves navigation, increases time spent on the site, and sends clear signals to search engines. It also helps to distribute authority between pages and to optimize SEO.

What makes a tree structure really effective in SEO and user experience

A correct structure may be sufficient for a small site. But an optimized structure does better. It improves visibility on Google, internal navigation, and the ability to convert.

Key pages should be visible and reinforced

Your most important pages should be easy to reach and easy to understand. They should appear in the menu or be accessible in one click from a category.

Then, they need to be strengthened by internal links. The more relevant internal links a page receives, the easier it is for Google to explore, and the more central it becomes in the architecture.

This is the difference between a site that “exists” on the Internet, and a site that is progressing in natural referencing.

Coherence menu, content, internal links

An effective website tree aligns three elements.

The menu announces the structure. The contents explain and respond to research. Internal links guide and connect pages.

If these three elements contradict each other, the user hesitates. If the user hesitates, they leave. The bounce rate is increasing, and the experience is getting worse. Even without talking about the algorithm, it is a clear signal: navigation is not doing its job.

Some guidelines to know if your structure is good

A good test is to look at your site as a user who doesn't know you.

Are the menu titles clear? Do the categories match the search? Does each page have a logical place in the architecture? Do internal links really guide? Can Google crawl your pages without running into dead ends?

If you're in doubt, it's rarely a design issue. It is often a problem of tree structure, internal navigation, or poorly thought-out mesh.

Go further with a tree structure that really serves your business

A successful website tree is a structure that helps your users, that facilitates indexing on Google, and that turns your pages into a clear path. It's also what makes creating content easier and more profitable, because each page has a consistent role, category, and internal links.

At Scroll, we build site architectures that serve natural referencing and conversion, right from the design stage. We start from your goals, the research of Internet users, and the logic of navigation. Then, we structure the pages, the menu, the contents and the internal network to obtain a readable, solid site, and ready to evolve. If you are preparing a creation or a redesign, this is often the step that saves the most time and avoids the most mistakes over time.