What’s one piece of advice you’d give for using keyword research to optimize website architecture and navigation? We asked five experts and they shared how they harness the power of keyword research for refining website architecture. Learn how to effectively map user journeys and utilize high-value keywords to enhance navigation and drive engagement.
- Let Search Intent Guide Your Structure
- Create User-Centric Site Structure
- Focus on Intent-Driven Categorization
- Map User Journey with Search Intent
- Use High-Value Keywords for Navigation
Let Search Intent Guide Your Structure
One key piece of advice for using keyword research to optimize website architecture and navigation is to let the search intent behind keywords guide your structure. Keywords reveal what users are looking for and how they expect to find it, so your site should mirror that logic.
For example, while working on an e-commerce site, I discovered through keyword research that users often searched for specific product categories like “sustainable sneakers,” “vegan shoes,” and “leather boots.” These insights led us to restructure the navigation by creating dedicated category pages for these terms.
We also grouped related subcategories under each, such as “vegan running shoes” or “ankle leather boots,” and used these terms in menu labels and internal links. This not only made navigation intuitive but also allowed the site to rank better for long-tail keywords by aligning with user search behavior.
The result was a more user-friendly experience and improved organic traffic, as visitors could quickly find what they needed. Always think of keywords as a roadmap; they tell you how to organize your site to meet user needs while boosting your SEO performance.
Vivek Tank
Senior SEO Specialist, Verz Design
Create User-Centric Site Structure
Focus on creating a user-centric site structure that aligns with how people search for and categorize information in your niche. Use your keyword research to identify the main topics and subtopics users care about, then organize your site hierarchy and navigation around those concepts.
Here’s an example of how I’ve applied this in practice:
For a health and wellness website, our keyword research revealed that users were primarily searching for information by health condition and types of treatment. Based on this, we restructured the site architecture as follows:
Main navigation categories:
- Health Conditions
- Treatments & Therapies
- Healthy Living
Subcategories under “Health Conditions”:
- Heart Disease
- Diabetes
- Cancer
- Mental Health
By aligning the site architecture with users’ mental models and search behaviors, we were able to create a more intuitive experience that also sent stronger topical relevance signals to search engines.
Oliver Applebaum
SEO Manager, Compare Club
Focus on Intent-Driven Categorization
One piece of advice I’d give for using keyword research to optimize website architecture and navigation is this: focus on intent-driven categorization. It’s not just about clustering similar keywords but understanding how users expect to find information on your site and designing your structure to meet those expectations.
For example, when working with a DTC eCommerce brand, I noticed their site structure wasn’t reflecting the way users searched for their products. Using Keyword Insights, I conducted a comprehensive analysis of search intent behind thousands of keywords relevant to their product categories. The tool’s clustering functionality helped me group keywords based on similarity and intent, revealing gaps in their navigation.
Here’s how I applied it:
- Data Collection: I started by inputting their full list of keywords into Keyword Insights, which automatically grouped terms by intent and search behavior.
- Cluster Analysis: The tool segmented keywords into clear themes, such as “best eco-friendly [product]” or “budget [product],” showing the user’s intent behind these searches (e.g., research, purchase, or discovery).
Based on these clusters, I proposed a new site structure:
- Created distinct categories like “Eco-Friendly Options” and “Budget-Friendly Choices.”
- Enhanced subcategories to align with how users phrased their queries, improving navigation and visibility.
These changes were reflected in the site’s menu, breadcrumbs, and internal linking strategy to make it easier for both users and search engines to crawl the site.
Kev Wiles
Fractional SEO Director, Kev Wiles
Map User Journey with Search Intent
When performing keyword research, I recommend that you pay attention to search intent and use that to help map the user journey in your website architecture and navigation. Determine whether keywords are informational, commercial, or transactional. For example, if you sell fishing gear, a keyword like “how to choose a fishing lure” would be informational, while “best lure for ice fishing” would be commercial and “buy large ice fishing jig lure” would be transactional. By understanding the intent behind these keywords, you can better understand the pathways users might take on your website and make sure they are easy to navigate. If you create a piece of informational content, for instance, you may want to include links to relevant category and product pages within it.
Lauren Walter
Search & Content Director, Online Optimism
One piece of advice I’d share is to structure your site around high-value, relevant navigation keywords. This approach ensures a better user experience and boosts your SEO performance significantly.
For example, when working with a fashion e-commerce client, we found that keywords were missing from both the title and description of the product listings.
By adding relevant keywords with high search volumes and categorizing them under popular and specific keywords like “Mermaid-Style Evening gowns,” “Off-shoulder cocktail dresses,” etc. allowed customers to quickly find the exact product they were searching for.
We further created subcategories with long-tail keywords to further narrow down the results and included a site hierarchy for easier navigation.
As a result, the e-commerce site saw a 25.4% boost in organic traffic and a 53.3% increase in conversion rates.
Gursharan Singh
Co-Founder, WebSpero Solutions
