Site structure

Keep it shallow

The structure that works for a defense practice is flat. The home page links to the practice area index; the index links to every charge page; the charge pages link laterally to the procedure pages a reader would want next.

Nothing important should be more than two clicks from the home page. Where a site has grown so that charge pages sit three or four levels down, the fix is usually a properly built index page rather than a rebuild.

The hierarchy

URLs

Short, readable and stable. A URL naming the charge is better than one carrying an identifier, and a URL that never changes is better than a well-worded one that does.

Where URLs must change, redirect the old ones permanently. Firms lose accumulated position at site rebuilds more often than at any other moment, and almost always because redirects were an afterthought.

Navigation

The main menu should name the charges the firm defends rather than hiding them behind a generic practice areas entry. A reader arriving with a specific charge should see their word in the navigation without a click.

Menus built entirely in JavaScript are the common failure. Where the links only exist after a script runs, some crawlers will not follow them, and pages reachable only through such a menu are frequently not indexed at all.

Chapter assignment

The assignment for Site structure is to turn the chapter's advice into a testable site component with an owner and rollback path. Begin with the question that caused the reader to open this chapter. Write it in one sentence and name the person who can approve the answer. The chapter premise is: A page four clicks deep and linked from nowhere but a footer menu is being presented to a search engine as unimportant, whatever its content says. Structure is how a site declares its own priorities.

For Site structure, define completion before doing the work. A task is complete when the firm can inspect the changed asset, recover the starting state and repeat the check without relying on memory. Activity counts and dashboard labels do not satisfy that rule. The retained deliverable is the test result, changed files and acceptance record.

Set up the working file

Create the Site structure folder under the market and observation date. Put the baseline or source copy first. Add a short manifest that names the asset owner, operator, approver, measurement unit and next review date. Link to firm-controlled credentials through the approved credential system; never place a password in the workbook.

The Site structure file records unknown fields as unknown. An empty value is a prompt for the owner, not permission to infer. If two sources disagree, save both and open a conflict row before choosing one. For public legal text, identify the attorney who will check the statement. For measurement, identify the instrument and settings. For vendor work, identify the export and exit right.

Execution pass

1. Observe. Save the present state and note why it matters to the firm's criminal defense work.
2. Diagnose. Separate the visible symptom from its possible causes. Choose the smallest change that tests the diagnosis.
3. Approve. Obtain factual, attorney or commercial approval at the point required by the asset.
4. Change. Make one attributable revision and record the operator and time.
5. Verify. Repeat the original check under the same scope. Capture the result even when it failed.
6. Hand off. Store the files under firm control and assign the next review.

The Site structure failure to guard against is shipping a technical change without checking the rendered public page. If it occurs, stop the release. Preserve the failed state and decide whether the work, source or instrument caused the problem. A new method needs a new baseline and version; it should not be spliced into the previous series.

Decision points

Continue the Site structure assignment when the starting record is complete, the owner is known and the acceptance rule can be tested. Pause when access is disputed, a legal statement awaits attorney review, the measured unit has changed or a source conflicts with the proposed wording. Cancel the task when it does not match a real charge, market, reader question or business decision.

Prioritize Site structure by dependency. Ownership comes before optimization. A baseline comes before a change report. A charge brief comes before prose. Crawl access comes before answer testing. A defined intake event comes before a return calculation. This order prevents later work from resting on an unknown or disputed input.

Quality review

For Site structure: Test crawl access and the contact path after deployment, then retain the result. Then ask whether a new operator could reproduce the check from the handoff. Confirm that page headings name the reader's question, local claims name the correct market, and measurement statements retain their units. Verify that no confidential matter fact or unsupported outcome entered a public file.

Check source control for Site structure as well. A statement on the firm's own page is first-party. A publisher-owned sibling domain is still the same origin. An award citation must keep the issuer's qualification. A vendor screenshot is useful evidence of a recorded state, but the firm should also retain an export when one is available.

Field exercise

Choose one live example for Site structure from the firm's current operation. Use a real market and a real service the firm accepts. Save the present public view before discussing improvements. Ask the asset owner to describe the problem without offering a solution. That account becomes the problem statement and gives the later review something concrete to test.

Now complete the Site structure assignment on that single example. Keep a side log of assumptions and evidence requests. When an assumption is confirmed, replace it with the source. When it is rejected, note the effect on the proposed work. Do not expand to a second asset until the first has passed its acceptance rule. This narrow trial exposes access problems and approval delays while the recovery cost is low.

Have a second person review the Site structure handoff without verbal explanation. Ask that reviewer to locate the baseline, identify the change, repeat the test and find the approval. Any answer that depends on the original operator's memory is a documentation gap. Repair the file and repeat the review.

Finally, write two Site structure report sentences. The first states the observable result in its native unit. The second states the limit or next decision. Remove any causal language that the record cannot support. Store the approved pair with the deliverable so the monthly report does not have to reconstruct meaning from a chart.

Handoff record

The Site structure handoff contains the starting record, work completed, approval, final check, open limitations and next action. Give each item a stable filename. The receiving owner should be able to say what changed, why it changed, who approved it and where the proof sits.

End the Site structure file with a plain decision: accepted, accepted with a named limit, returned for repair or stopped. A partially completed task should remain open. Carry the unresolved field into the next work cycle instead of hiding it inside a broad progress label.

Acceptance record for Site structure

Reopen Site structure with the test result, changed files and acceptance record in view. Apply this review: Test crawl access and the contact path after deployment, then retain the result. Record whether the file answers “A page four clicks deep and linked from nowhere but a footer menu is being presented to a search engine as unimportant, whatever its content says. Structure is how a site declares its own priorities.” at its stated market and date. A different question gets a new assignment and cannot borrow the approval attached to Site structure.

Return Site structure when it shows shipping a technical change without checking the rendered public page. Keep the rejected copy and name the record needed for another pass. Acceptance means the firm controls a testable site component with an owner and rollback path, can recover the earlier state and has dated the next check.

Related chapters31. Internal linking · 30. Crawlability and indexing · 27. City pages done right