Design a Website Search Engines and People Can Use.

Design the page relationships first

Sketch the main journeys: homepage to service, service to evidence, guide to a related product, category to an item. Each important destination should be reachable through a meaningful route. A beautiful page hidden behind an internal search box can still be difficult to discover.

Decide which page owns each topic before adding more landing pages. If two pages serve the same audience and answer the same question, clarify their jobs or consolidate them.

Make navigation real links

Use links with destinations in the HTML. Buttons that only trigger JavaScript are appropriate for interface actions but should not replace ordinary navigation.

<nav aria-label="Services">
  <a href="/commercial-cleaning/">Commercial cleaning</a>
  <a href="/floor-care/">Floor care</a>
</nav>

In this illustrative structure, the labels describe the services and the URLs lead directly to their pages. Test the links with keyboard navigation and on a small screen.

Include SEO requirements in acceptance criteria

• Each template has an editable, meaningful title and description.
• Main content is available when Google renders the page.
• Canonicals identify the intended page rather than a staging URL.
• Missing pages return an appropriate error status.
• Images and embeds reserve space to avoid layout jumps.
• Menus and forms remain usable on mobile devices.

Test before switching the site over

Compare the old and new URL lists. Open representative service, article, category, and error pages. Check links and rendered content, then test any planned redirects. Treat the sitemap as a discovery aid rather than a replacement for navigation.

Make a short handoff document showing who can edit metadata, where redirects live, and how to verify a release. These operational details make a design easier to maintain after the launch presentation is over.