Guides to website structure

Information architecture has a reputation for jargon, but at heart it comes down to a few plain questions. What goes together? What is it called? Where does it live? How do people get from one page to the next? These guides answer those questions one at a time, with examples and with links to the official guidance behind each recommendation.

Where to start

If you are new to the subject, read what information architecture is first. It explains the parts of a structure and how they fit together, and links to the other guides where each part is covered in depth.

If you have a specific job in front of you, jump to the guide that matches it:

• Planning a new site or rebuild: planning a sitemap and planning a URL structure.
• Sorting out categories and tags: taxonomy, categories and tags.
• Fixing menus: accessible navigation patterns and breadcrumbs and wayfinding.
• Getting good pages found: internal linking for findability.
• Testing a structure with real people: card sorting and tree testing.
• Moving or merging content: restructuring without losing search traffic.
• Budgeting: what information architecture work costs in Australia.

How the guides are written

Each guide opens with a short answer, then explains the reasoning. Where a recommendation comes from a standard or an official source, we name it and link to it in the source list at the end. Those sources include Google Search Central for crawling, URLs and sitemaps; the W3C for accessibility, including WCAG 2.2, which became a W3C Recommendation on 5 October 2023; and the Australian Government Style Manual for writing and structure. Where a recommendation is our own judgement, we say so.

We do not quote statistics we cannot trace to a source, and we do not describe client results. Worked examples are invented and labelled as illustrations. The editorial policy explains how guides are researched, checked and updated.

Who the guides are for

The guides assume you look after a website with a fair amount of content: a council or agency site, a university or training provider, an association, a health or community service, a software or publishing business. They assume no special training. If you are an experienced practitioner, you may still find the source lists useful when you need to show colleagues where a recommendation comes from.

Australian context

The guides are written in Australian English and refer to Australian guidance where it exists. That includes the Australian Government Style Manual, the Digital Transformation Agency's Digital Service Standard for Commonwealth services, the Australian Privacy Principles for anything that collects personal information, and the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 for accessibility. Prices in the cost guide are in Australian dollars.

Using the guides with the tools

Several guides pair with a free planning tool. The sitemap guide pairs with the sitemap builder, the taxonomy guide with the taxonomy planner, and the internal linking guide with the linking checklist. The tools run in your browser and export their results as files.

Keeping the guides current

Search engine documentation and accessibility guidance change. Each guide shows the date it was last updated, and each source list shows the date the sources were checked. If you spot something that has changed, please tell us through the contact page and we will check it.

A reading order for a project

If you are about to start a website project, this order follows the life of the work:

1. What information architecture is, to agree terms with your team.
2. Card sorting and tree testing, to plan any research.
3. Planning a sitemap and planning a URL structure, to shape the plan.
4. Taxonomy, categories and tags, to classify content.
5. Accessible navigation patterns and breadcrumbs and wayfinding, to brief your designers.
6. Internal linking for findability and restructuring without losing search traffic, for launch.

Suggesting a topic

If there is a structure question you would like a guide to cover, send it through the contact page. We prioritise topics that come up for the people who look after Australian websites, and we will tell you if a guide is planned.

All guides

Sources checked 4 November 2026 for guides

1. Hierarchical structure, Style Manual
2. SEO Starter Guide, Google
3. WCAG 2.2 changes, W3C