Information Architecture
No matter what your authoring environment may be, it is important to establish a clear and organized hierarchy of information that is easy to maintain.
Information Hierarchy – google and people like it!
Since a website functions far more like a reference book than a novel, it is best to structure the content aligned in clearly defined categories.
Navigation placement and structure
In order to be properly indexed by search engines, navigation items should be text “defined” whenever possible.
Stability & Portability of structure
The environment that you site is contained within should have the following attributes:
Anticipating Expansion
Every search engine, and most human beings, show a marked preference for a site that is regularly updated and expanded.
The 3 click rule
Significant time, effort, and probably government money has been spent proving that site visitors will get frustrated and abandon a site if it takes them more than 3 “clicks” to arrive at information they are seeking, so navigation should be structured accordingly!
