How do you visualize website structure
-
How do you visualize a website structure in terms of (categories of) pages and interlinking. I use such visuals for discussing what you are actually doing now and what can be improved. I have made visuals I few times myself (basically making boxes representing categories of pages and lines representing internal links), but I found that I soon ran into a scheme of huge proportions and needed more paper and more time. Appreciate your thoughts!
-
DYNO Mapper is great at visualizing a website's structure. It is the best Sitemap Generator that I have used because it also performs a content audit and includes Google Analytics integration. It's pretty sweet how you can sort and filter pages based on Google Analytics metrics. If you are looking for a great discovery and planning tool I would give it a try.
-
I played around with Cytoscape and I'd definitely be interested of the spreadsheet as well!
-
Online-Tool diagramly (free) You can Save it as XML, JPG, PNG and SVG.
Or Lovely Charts (not free), but you can put in text-Sitemaps for a "Autovisualisation". -
I print it out and lay it out on a large table in the office. Just seeing it visually lets me get to grips with it a lot easier than scrolling through unconnected pages on a screen.
Print small and get a big table and you can fit a large sitemap there
Get a lot of A4s and some scissors and tape and you will be surprised how much better your understanding is by the time you've finished
-
I'm a big fan of Smart draw but just recently had a colleague share a chart with me via Google Docs which appeared to work very well for creating a flow chart and mapping out site structure.
-
-
Open Office Draw is free and has a series of flow chart icons but it's a manual job and takes a bit of getting used to (price is right though). Anything like this falls apart for larger sites though as you would be there all week.
Would love to know if there is a firm favourite amongst people as it's certainly helpful to visualise interlinking and structure.
-
Damien, I'd be interested in taking a look at this as well, if you're OK sending it over to me. We used to use a profiler program that now seems to be dead.
-
You can also download a trial of Black Widow - http://download.cnet.com/1770-20_4-0-.html?query=black+widow&searchtype=downloads&tag=opensearch
Once you've scanned a site, it builds a site architecture that looks like Windows Explorer. You can take screen shots and place them in your documents as needed.
-
Glad to.
I'm in the middle of rewriting the macro at the moment as my first attempt was a tad on the slow side. I can skype it across to you when I finish it (today or tomorrow).
-
This sounds like a great idea. I'm certainly interested in seeing how you handle the Xenu data if you're willing to share!
-
I'm currently using a combination of (mainly free) apps to map my company's website to visualise link flow and indentify isolated content that hasn't been correctly linked in.
I start with a site crawl using Xenu's Link Sleuth from which I can export a list of all pages as well as a list of all the links. I import the two lists into Excel where the data gets cleaned and additional information extracted by a macro. The final step is to import the link and page data in Cytoscape which performs the visualisation.
Don't be fooled by the biological focus of Cytoscape, it will work with any data as long as it's broken down into nodes (pages) and edges (links). It incorporates a number of visualisation algorithms, and allows you to filter a selection of nodes which can then be copied to a subnetwork and visualised separately.
It handles our small site of 2k pages and 50k internal links with ease, and I know a geneticist who uses it to map networks of over 7k genes with some 300k interactions.
If you're interested, I can provide a copy of the spreadsheet I use for manipulating the raw Xenu data.
-
ProtoShare.com is the best tool of that kind for me
-
Thanks Nick, really handy, appreciate it.
-
I like using post-its, but that can get ridiculous as well. Here is one of my faves for mind-mapping, and it's completely free: https://bubbl.us -
-
Apart from everything mentioned already - bubbl.us is a great free online tool that lets you save and export your visualisations.
-
You might want to check out this link, which works for new versions of Omigraffe.
Let me know what you think.
-
I hadn't noticed that - shame, could have been interesting if they kept up development.
-
I checked out WriteMaps, and it was very very nice for small sites. It is a pity that it does not seem to be maintained anymore. Last communication from the creator seems to be from 2009.
-
I checked out WriteMaps, and it was very very nice for small sites. It is a pity that it does not seem to be maintained anymore. Last communication from the creator seems to be from 2009.
-
Smart Draw is seriously awesome; just downloaded for a 7 day free trial. I used Mockingbird in the past but SD looking way better now.
-
I'm a little late to the party (just trying out the new Q&A for the first time).
I was looking for a solution myself yesterday and found two free ones that, while definitely not as full-featured as those shared by ninjamarketer, might do the trick.
WriteMaps is a nifty tool (free to use) that looks to have some potential.
SlickMap is an HTML/CSS template you can use to add up to three levels of hierarchy, and it looks pretty sharp (though it's clearly not as quick/convenient as some of the other tools).
-
I use Visio to start with and when I go in to more details in terms of pages, I use https://gomockingbird.com/
This allows me to share the drawings easily.
-
Another vote for Smartdraw!
-
I'll use the mac software omnigraffle to chart out my site. Also someone came up with a cool applescript that will take a regular xml sitemap and turn it into omnigraffle.
-
Great.Thanks
-
Sure. Your welcome.
-
Thanks Sameer, I will check these out.
-
I have used PowerMapper and am relatively happy with it. It fails miserably on large scale websites. I've spent days researching website structure visualistion and found that there are no rubust industry strength solutions out there available to general community. We're in the process of writing our own software for that reason.
-
Hey Jos: I use a vector based drawing program (CorelDraw) and draw boxes with lines like you. I can highlight main pages by border thickness and colors.
It's probably not nearly as elegant as Sameer's suggestions, but I've used it for so many years, it's as comfortable as a pair of old jeans
-
I second the smartdraw software.
I've been happy with it because you can do several other things with it.
-
Thanks Sameer, I'll have to check these out
-
Great question. I tend to just map it out by hand categories / sub categories / products/services but I can see how that can get quite daunting on very large sites.
-
I would assume you are referring to site architecture. If this is the case then there are several good tools in market that are used by dev / designers to map out the site artchitecture or sitemaps.
Microsoft visio http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/visio/
Power mapper http://www.powermapper.com/
Smart draw http://www.smartdraw.com/
I have used smart draw for flow charts and found it lot easier to use.
Hope this helps.
Thanks
Sameer
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
URL Structure's Effect on SEO
Hello all, I have a client who currently has a very poor URL structure. As it stands, their URLs are formatted in the following manner: http://www.domain.com/category/subcategory/page In all my years of SEO, however, I have always tried to implement the following format: http://www.domain.com/category/page The web designer for this particular project has been very reluctant to change the structure for obvious reasons, but I'm convinced that by modifying the URL structure, SEO will improve. I am correct in thinking this? Likewise, if I am able to get the URL structure changed, what do I need to look out for to make sure we don't lose any traction for our keyword terms? Any and all insight/suggestions is greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading!
Web Design | | maxcarnage0 -
Best Practice For Website Redesign & Migration
Hi, I'm looking to redesign my current live website to a new Wordpress site using "Studiopress Enterprise Theme". I'm new to Wordpress and therefore will be embarking on lots of testing & development.
Web Design | | Mark_Ch
I do not want to hurt my current live website whilst testing the new Wordpress site. However, it would be nice to bring the test site into the current live environment without changing untold urls, etc. Question
What is the best practice to setup this new Wordpress environment for my domain: www.sampledomain.co.uk How would you restrict Google, Bing, etc from indexing, etc. whilst testing in the live environment. What other consideration should I be aware of Thanks Mark0 -
How do I move a 200+ website properly with 301 redirect?
I tried to search for the answer but didnt find any direct answers. I need to move a 200+ site to a wordpress site. How am I suppose to 301 redirect all of them? Do I need to create the new pages first then have webmaster use ssh and 301 the entire list? Can anyone link me to a 1,2,3 step instructions for a huge website move? Im sure there are other issues that I need to know about.
Web Design | | bryonstout0 -
How do I learn how to build custom wordpress websites?
Is wordpress a good platform to build websites with? If so, what are some good resources to learn how to build custom websites using wordpress?
Web Design | | Lael0 -
What are some of the best website hosting platforms for Wordpress?
I'm looking for a new hosting provider and have been told to find one that specializes in Wordpress hosting because of higher page speed load times, etc.. Can anyone recommend a couple of Wordpress Hosting providers
Web Design | | webestate0 -
Effects of HTML layout on Arabic websites and SEO
Hi all, I was hoping someone may be able to help. We are putting together an Arabic website and due to reading right to left as opposed to left to right, the site HTML layout is mirrored compared to normal with everything flipped over. What we are wondering is, will this effect SEO and what are the SEO implications of this? Do the search engine bots automaticlaly know to read the content etc differently and understand that everything is purposely mirrored / the HTML is in a different location compared to a site in the UK / US etc? Any help on this would be most appreciated. Cheers!
Web Design | | marcelo-2753980 -
Websites with only one "html file" and page href # is good for SEO?
I bought one website from templatemonster that contains only one HTML and the pages are generated by links (PROGRAMACAO) My website: www.nextformaturas.com.br This is good in term of SEO? or it is better an website with deveral pages with diferent contents? What are the pros and cons? I really lost on this.
Web Design | | Naghirniac0 -
How does the "first link" rule work with the "reasonable surfer patent" when it comes to the main navigation for a website?
In trying to figure out navigation for a new website, I am struggling with the first link rule vs. the reasonable surfer patent where the first link rule implies that Google "counts" the first link to a page including navigation, and the reasonable surfer patent that implies that navigation links carry less weight than body copy links. What is the best solution for creating main navigation so that it doesn't take away from the body copy links?
Web Design | | cindyt-170380