Information Architecture vs. Sitemaps: What You Need to Know

Where do you buy your groceries?

There’s something so delightful about a farmers market. Passing by fresh sourdough and seasonal produce is a good way to get meal inspo, whether you’re a home chef or food delivery fiend.

And then reality hits. You’ve just spent $60 on a protein and 2 veggies, and you still have 6 more meals to shop for this week.

Farmers markets are fun but a little chaotic. You need signs. You need price stickers. You need a sense of organization to quickly find what you’re looking for. So you run to the grocery store to finish the job.

Like grocery stores, strong websites are:

• Intuitively structured
• Well-organized
• Easy to navigate

This is no accident. Behind every user-friendly, search-optimized website are a strategic sitemap and information architecture that help you quickly find what you’re looking for. Let’s get into it.

Can we just say search optimized?

What is a sitemap?

People tend to be more familiar with “sitemap” than “information architecture.” A sitemap is a high-level view of your website that shows the relationship between your main webpages.

Typically, sitemaps are visual diagrams that show your content buckets and subfolders. (You can also call these parent and child pages.)

Examples of sitemaps

For a sitemap example, look at this draft sitemap* for the Aha Media Group website. Our content strategists organized the website this way during our website redesign to improve navigation and make important info easy to find.

*This sitemap has since been updated. Note that your sitemap should evolve as your organization does.

Sitemaps don’t have to look like ours, with the homepage at the top. A sitemap can be organized by product, or a hospital website can be broken down by service line. See the healthcare sitemap example below.

What is information architecture?

A website’s information architecture (IA) is a framework for structuring all the information on your website. The IA is a detailed representation of the:

• Way your pages are organized
• Flow of content on each page
• User intent each page type serves
• Mapped journeys users take on your website

There’s no one way to create an IA. They come in all shapes and sizes.

Information architecture example

When building an information architecture, best practice says to consider:

• User experience (UX): What’s the purpose of each page, and where does it fit in the user journey?
• Content goals: Each webpage should serve a purpose and align with user intent. Don’t rewrite any webpage before defining its goal.
• Content templates: What kind of content will be featured on different types of pages, like condition, program, or physician profile pages? Similar pages should follow a consistent layout. Create that layout or template.

View an example content template that’s loosely modeled after Aha Media’s services page layout.

Information architecture vs. sitemaps: What’s the difference?

Sitemaps and information architecture are both foundational elements of your content strategy. They provide direction for website structure and organization. They should be created before finalizing the (re)design of your website.

But the IA and sitemap serve different purposes in your website strategy.

Partner with content strategists for information architecture and sitemaps

If you want your website content to click with readers — and who wouldn’t? — invest time and resources in developing your sitemap and mapping your information architecture at the beginning of your major website initiative.

This type of strategic work will be more than worth it when you measure the return on your redesign or website migration after the fact.

This work is all about your content, so the best people to facilitate this process are content strategists who understand your industry and your audiences. If your industry is healthcare, that’s us.

Learn how we can help with your website strategy