site-architecture

Start with a content inventory and business goals, then apply the 3-click rule so important pages sit within three levels of the homepage. Produce an ASCII tree hierarchy, a Mermaid visual sitemap, a URL map table, and a navigation specification as deliverables.

Use short, readable, lowercase paths with hyphens that mirror the hierarchy, such as /blog/post-slug and /features/feature-name. Avoid dates, IDs, query parameters, and deep nesting, and enforce a consistent trailing slash policy.

Keep header navigation to 4-7 items with the CTA button rightmost and the logo linking home on the left. If a dropdown exceeds roughly 20 items, add a hierarchy level or use a mega menu with 2-4 columns.

No. XML sitemaps, crawl errors, and indexation are technical SEO concerns handled by a separate seo-audit skill. This skill covers design-level architecture: page hierarchy, navigation, URL patterns, and internal linking.

Create hub pages (e.g., /integrations, /compare) that link to all generated pages, keep them out of the primary header nav, and use hub-and-spoke internal linking. Consider crawl budget implications when adding large page volumes.

Flat architectures (2 levels) suit small sites but don't scale; deep architectures (4+ levels) suit e-commerce and large docs but risk burying content. Most SaaS and content sites work best at 3 levels, balancing findability with clean navigation.