SEO Architect: Audit, Plan & Optimize Site Structure for Your Site

Three-mode site architecture workflow: audit an existing site, plan a new build or restructure, or optimize internal linking for topical authority. Every recommendation is checked against crawl-efficiency rules, the 3-click rule, and eight site-type templates that fit how real businesses actually organize their pages.

Who it's for

• Technical SEO auditing a large site where depth has crept past 4 levels, orphan pages keep appearing in reports, and URL patterns drifted across years of redirects.
• Content team with a blog that's outgrown its flat structure but isn't sure when to introduce category nesting, hub pages, or topic clusters.
• Founder building a new site who needs the page hierarchy, URL structure, and navigation right the first time — without locking in mistakes that cost months to undo.
• Webmaster restructuring an existing site trying to figure out which pages to merge, which to split, which to redirect, and which to leave alone.
• E-commerce operator deciding category nesting depth, where the subscription or membership page belongs, and how product pages should connect to category and blog content.
• SEO consultant translating a client's vague complaint (""users can't find things,"" ""best pages aren't ranking"") into a specific structural diagnosis worth billing for.

What you can do with it

Mode 1 — Audit an existing site

Drop in a sitemap, page list, or Search Console report. You get back:

• Depth distribution and pages buried beyond the 3-click rule
• Orphan pages with no inbound internal links (separated by whether they have external backlinks worth recovering)
• URL pattern inconsistencies and duplicate paths
• Navigation gaps and thin sub-pages that should be merged into their parent
• A translation of Search Console errors into specific structural fixes — for example, ""Crawled but not indexed"" usually points at thin or duplicative pages, while ""Discovered but not indexed"" usually points at structural depth or missing internal links
• A prioritized fix list with severity tags and owner-tagged action items

Mode 2 — Plan a new site or restructure

Describe what you're building or what's broken. You get back a complete blueprint:

• Page hierarchy as a visual sitemap
• URL map for every page in the structure
• Navigation spec covering header, footer, breadcrumbs, and mobile
• Homepage body link strategy beyond the standard nav — the 5–8 highest-equity destinations the homepage body should link to directly, not just through the menu
• Internal linking plan for topical authority
• Traffic migration plan when you're moving from social, email lists, an existing domain, or a physical storefront

Mode 3 — Optimize internal linking

For sites where structure is sound but rankings underperform. You get back:

• Hub-and-spoke map per topic cluster, identifying which pages should rank highest and which should support them
• Conversion funnel audit using the right pattern for your business — SaaS and lead-gen sites get a different funnel logic than e-commerce, because the path from content to decision page is structurally different
• Orphan recovery plan ranked by fix priority (orphans with external backlinks first)
• Anchor text rewrites that replace generic ""click here"" or over-optimized keyword stuffing with a healthy mix — descriptive partial-match, branded, exact, and generic phrasing in the proportions that actually pass topical signals without tripping over-optimization filters

What's different about this skill

Diagnoses the structural problem when you only see a symptom. Most architecture issues show up as something else — pages not ranking, users not converting, errors piling up in Search Console. The skill reads those signals as structural diagnostics. ""Crawled but not indexed"" on multiple pages becomes ""consolidate thin sub-pages."" 404 spikes become ""missing 301 redirect map."" Orphan pages with external backlinks become ""highest-priority equity recovery."" Symptoms get translated into the architectural fix that resolves them, not relabeled as new symptoms.

Catches the most-misplaced URLs on the web. Subscription, membership, and pricing pages are placed wrong on most sites — /shop/subscription, /services/membership, /products/gift-cards. These imply the recurring offer is one of the products in the catalog, when it's actually a purchase model that belongs at the top level. The skill runs every revenue-related URL through a three-question test before recommending placement, so the page lives where it actually ranks for its intent.

Eight site-type templates instead of one generic blueprint. SaaS marketing, content and blog, e-commerce, documentation, hybrid SaaS+content, local and small business, nonprofit and mission-driven, creator and portfolio sites all get their own hierarchy depth, URL pattern, and navigation logic. Subscription and membership businesses get a separate placement framework on top, because the recurring offer changes where the primary product page belongs. The recommendation matches how that type of business actually monetizes — not a one-size-fits-all wireframe.

Content-first consolidation when merging thin pages. When the audit finds sub-pages that should become sections of one parent (/about/mission + /about/founder instead of one /about), the workflow writes the merged page first, then sets up redirects — in that order. Reverse the order and you lose SEO equity during the gap; this skill does it the way that preserves rankings through the change.

Traffic migration for sites that already have an audience. When a creator with an Instagram following, a restaurant with a physical storefront, a Substack writer, or a brand with an existing domain is launching or restructuring a site, the homepage and link strategy have to be different — those visitors are already brand-familiar, not cold traffic. The plan addresses social bio link redirects, existing-domain 301s, email signature updates, and a homepage that doesn't waste space re-introducing the brand.

How it works

1. Drop in any input — a sitemap (XML or just a snippet), page list, Search Console error or screenshot, plain text site description, or a mix.
2. The skill picks the mode based on what you sent: audit existing, plan new, or optimize linking. When the same site needs more than one, it sequences them in the right order. For sitemaps, an analyzer script runs first to extract depth distribution, orphan candidates, duplicate paths, and URL patterns — those numbers feed the recommendations rather than relying on heuristics alone.
3. You get back deliverables matched to that mode: visual sitemap, URL maps, navigation specs, internal linking plans, prioritized findings, or migration plans — whatever the request requires.

No setup, no plugin, no crawler installation. Paste in, get back a structure plan you can hand to engineering.

Output formats

Site types supported

SaaS marketing, content and blog sites, e-commerce (with category nesting depth guidance), documentation, hybrid SaaS+content sites, local and small business, nonprofit and mission-driven, and creator/portfolio sites with optional product lines. Subscription and membership businesses are handled as a placement pattern on top of the matching site type, with the recurring offer as the primary product page rather than a sub-page in the catalog.