What is Information Architecture?

Website structure, also sometimes referred to as information architecture, describes the logical flow of content on your site. A site that is well structured tends to focus on one overall major theme, and branch out from that theme into pages that are continually more focused, specific, and relevant to the overarching topic of the site.

For instance, a well architected website selling Caribbean cruises would branch into sub-topics (sub-directories and/or sub-menus) that flesh out the main theme. These sub-areas of the site might focus on specific Caribbean ports of call, cruise lines, specials / deals, thematic cruises, local culture, and anything else relevant to Caribbean cruises.
(Information above was located at http://www.ozonesem.com/search-engine-optimization/website-structure.html)


I have always wanted to know more about how the domain structure for multilingual sites are. Upon visiting some good sites, I figured that there are many ways to handle sites that are created in different languages for these countries. It looks like the best method however, is to create country specific TLDs with unique sites and content. Localization is critical and ensure that for instance the Spain site has language specific to Spain, not Chile! Another comparable method is to create sub-domains for each language version. Another not quite desirable, is to create a directory structure that serves each language. In all cases, web writers need to make sure of the name of the directories that use the language of the country being served.

Thankfully, Google Webmaster Tools now permit us to indicate the language preference for directories and sub-domains.
The first method, of course, has many benefits, which include the ability to validate the domain in Google Webmaster Tools and specify the geographic location. International TLDs will be indexed and listed in specific language versions of search engines and regional directories, while many sub-domains and directory localization strategies will not be indexed and listed such.
Small international sites should be served with a version selector for each country-specific domain. This assists with spidering and allows users to choose the version of the site they are interested in using.