Technical SEO & Site Architecture: Visualization Tools

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Website Visualization Tool on Laptop

Site architecture, or how the website is laid out/structured, is crucial in SEO. 

A well-structured site allows search engines to efficiently crawl (find) and index (make it searchable online) the content, ensuring optimal visibility in search results. It also helps users find information quickly and easily, which improves engagement. 

In this article, we’ll cover some tools you can use to improve your website’s architecture.

Tools

There are six major tools you can use: Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, DYNO Mapper™, Slickplan, Gephi, and GitMind. We’ll cover all six in detail below.

Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Screaming Frog Crawl Tree Visualization

Pricing: $259/Year, Free Version Available With Limited Capabilities

Screaming Frog can crawl your website and provide an overview of its structure, including URLs, broken links, redirects, metadata, headings, internal and external links, canonical tags, and other crucial information. The tool also offers visualizations, including crawl tree graphs and force-directed diagrams. By detecting common SEO issues, you can optimize your site for better search engine rankings and user experience.

Screaming Frog Directory Structure

With Screaming Frog, you can also export data for further analysis and integrate the tool with Google Analytics and Google Search Console for a more holistic view of your site’s performance.

Screaming Frog Crawl Depth Interface

More info:

https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/site-architecture-crawl-visualisations/

Sitebulb

SiteBulb Radial Website Visualization

Pricing: Two Plans Available: Lite, $13.50/Month (Per User), or Pro, $35/Month (Per User)

Sitebulb offers comprehensive website auditing and visualization features, including crawl maps, directory tree diagrams, and link graphs. These visualizations help you easily spot patterns and trends, such as orphan pages, broken links, or improper redirects.

There are no crawl limits, so you can keep crawling websites until all your issues are resolved!

SiteBulb Isolated URL Cluster

The visualizations in SiteBulb are easier to follow compared to Screaming Frog. If you’re a small business or running your own website, the Lite plan may be better. If you’re a professional agency that helps other clients identify and fix site structure issues, the Pro plan will offer the most value to you over time. In addition to visually showing issues with your site’s structure, you can integrate SiteBulb with Google Analytics and Google Search Console.

More info:

Sitebulb's Website Visualization Documentation

DYNO Mapper

Pricing: Three Available Plans: $49/Month (Starter), $99/Month (Standard), $360/Month (Organization)

DYNO Mapper™ creates interactive visual sitemaps of your website that you can use to analyze its architecture. It also offers insights into URL structures, broken links, and other SEO-related data, and you can integrate it with Google Analytics for more in-depth analysis.

DynoMapper Visual Thumbnail Sitemap

Using visual thumbnails for each URL in the map (see above) helps you easily recognize the site’s content as it relates to the structure.

More info:

DynoMapper XML Sitemap Resource

Slickplan

Pricing: Four Available Plans: $10.79/Month (Basic), $31.49/Month (Pro), $62.99/Month (Team), $103.49/Month (Agency)

Slickplan is a user-friendly website planning and sitemap building tool you can use to create visual sitemaps, flowcharts, and diagrams to plan and manage your website’s structure effectively. By offering a clear representation of your site’s hierarchy, you can identify potential issues, such as poor navigation.

SlickPlan Site Map Interface

Slickplan also integrates with popular SEO tools like Google Analytics and offers content planning and collaboration tools, allowing you to better plan, optimize, and execute your website strategy.

More info:

SlickPlan Content Planning Resources

Gephi

Pricing: Free

Gephi is an open-source graph visualization platform that can be effectively integrated with Screaming Frog SEO Spider to create custom visualizations of a website’s architecture. By importing crawl data from Screaming Frog, you can generate complex network graphs that reveal patterns, clusters, and trends within your site’s structure to identify broken links, orphan pages, poorly structured navigation, and other issues that could impact SEO performance.

Gephi Visualization of Screaming Frog Data

More info:

Arimetrics: Viewing Internal Links with Gephi

GitMind

Pricing: Free

GitMind is a multifaceted online mind-mapping and diagramming tool. You can use it for keyword mapping, to better understand how keywords are connected to each page of your website, or to create keyword clusters (keywords that are grouped based on topic).

Although GitMind was not necessarily designed for SEO objectives, using it for keyword mapping can help you build a more structured website that will ultimately enhance user experience and search engine crawlability.

GitMind for Semantic Keyword Mapping

More info:

Gitmind: Flowchart Guide

Have Questions? Contact Momentum Today!

Using site architecture tools can help you develop a more user-friendly website that’s accessible and easily navigable. But, you also need a solid understanding of SEO and website design and development practices. Otherwise, you won’t know what you need to look for. 

Whether you’re building a new website or restructuring an existing one, our experts at Momentum can help. Founded in 2010, we’re an experienced digital marketing agency providing website design and development and search engine optimization services to clients in many industries.

Please reach out to us today to learn more about site architecture or how we can help you redesign and rebuild your website.

Anthony Holcombe's Bio

Anthony Holcombe serves as Momentum's Technical SEO Specialist, bringing 15 years of digital marketing and web design expertise to the table. As a Google-certified Analyst, he focuses on implementing proven SEO tactics and leveraging data-driven insights for Momentum's clients.