Site architecture for AI search

AI engines crawl quickly and prefer architectures where every important page is two clicks from the homepage. Flat sites with clear hubs get cited more often than deep sites with comparable content quality.

Principles

Work through these steps in order. Each one builds on the last, so resist skipping ahead even if a step feels familiar.

1. Two click rule: every commercial page reachable from the homepage in two clicks.
2. Hub pages for every major topic, linking to all sub pages.
3. Stable URL slugs (avoid dates or auto numeric IDs).
4. Breadcrumbs on every page with BreadcrumbList schema.

Hub and spoke in practice

A hub page introduces a topic broadly and links out to every related sub page. The pattern gives engines a clear map of the topic and keeps every important page within reach of the homepage.

• Each hub links down to every sub page it covers, in a visible on page section.
• Each sub page links back up to its hub near the top of the content.
• Hubs sit no more than one click from the homepage or main navigation.
• Avoid orphan pages that no hub or sub page links to.

Migrating a deep site to a flatter structure

Restructuring an existing deep site is a redirect heavy project, so plan it carefully rather than moving URLs casually.

1. Map every existing URL to its new, flatter equivalent before changing anything.
2. Set up 301 redirects for every moved URL, never a blanket redirect to the homepage.
3. Update internal links to point directly to new URLs rather than relying on redirects.
4. Monitor Search Console coverage for a spike in errors after launch.