Structure Your Website Before Designing It

Before you think about colors, fonts, or layouts, you should decide how your website is organized. Structure determines what pages exist, how they relate to each other, and how visitors move through your site.

This page expands on Step 5 of the Essential Steps to Build a Website, focusing on how to create a simple structure that stays clear as your site grows.

Design makes a site look better. Structure makes a site work.

What Website Structure Means

Website structure is the map of your site: the pages you create, how they’re grouped, and how people move between them.

Good structure creates clarity for:

  • Visitors – They can find what they need without guessing.
  • Search engines – They can understand topics, relationships, and importance.
  • You – You can expand without rebuilding everything later.

Most “messy websites” aren’t messy because of design. They’re messy because the structure was never decided.

Start With a Page Map, Not a Layout

Start by listing the pages your website needs. Don’t worry about how they look yet—only what they are and what job they do.

Ask yourself:

  • What is the main thing this website helps someone do?
  • What are the few pages that must exist for the site to be useful?
  • What information must be easy to find in under 10 seconds?

This page map becomes the foundation for navigation, internal links, and content planning.

Core Pages vs Supporting Pages

Most strong websites are built around a small set of core pages, supported by additional pages that go deeper.

Core pages are the pages that define the website. They should be obvious from your purpose and audience.

  • A clear homepage (what it is, who it’s for, what to do next)
  • Primary topic or service pages (your main categories)
  • Trust/support pages (about, contact, policies if needed)

Supporting pages strengthen your core pages by answering sub-questions, covering details, or providing proof.

  • Subtopic guides
  • FAQs and explanations
  • Examples, case studies, or resources

The goal is a simple structure where supporting pages clearly “belong” to a core page.

Your navigation menu is not a list of everything you’ve published. It’s a list of what matters most.

A good navigation menu:

  • Highlights your core pages
  • Stays small enough to scan quickly
  • Makes the “next step” obvious for new visitors

If your menu is growing every time you publish something, your structure isn’t doing its job.

Internal links are how you guide visitors naturally and show search engines what pages relate to each other.

When your structure is clear, internal linking becomes simple:

  • Core pages link to supporting pages
  • Supporting pages link back to the most relevant core page
  • Related supporting pages link to each other when it’s genuinely helpful

Structure is what prevents internal links from becoming random or forced.

Common Structure Mistakes

Most structural problems come from building pages one at a time without an overall map.

  • Too many “core” pages – Everything looks equally important, so nothing is clear.
  • Flat sites – Dozens of unrelated pages with no hierarchy or grouping.
  • Menu overload – Navigation becomes a sitemap instead of a guide.
  • Orphan pages – Pages that exist but aren’t linked from anywhere meaningful.
  • Design-first decisions – Layouts get chosen before the site knows what it needs to contain.

Fixing these later usually means restructuring URLs, menus, and internal links—work that could have been avoided early.

A Simple Structure Process

You don’t need a complex system. You need a clear one.

  • List your core pages based on the website’s purpose.
  • Add supporting pages that make the core pages stronger.
  • Group pages logically so people can predict where things belong.
  • Keep the menu focused on the few pages most visitors should see first.
  • Connect everything with internal links that match the structure.

Once the structure is set, design becomes easier—because you’re designing around clear priorities instead of guessing.

Why Structure Matters Long-Term

Structure compounds. A good structure supports growth quietly. A weak structure creates friction at every stage.

When structure is clear, you can:

  • Add new pages without confusing visitors
  • Improve existing pages instead of constantly creating new ones
  • Build stronger internal linking and topical relevance over time

Design changes. Content evolves. But structure is what keeps the entire website coherent.