When looking for information on attic insulation, one might come across an article about boilers. If we want to compare facade materials, we find ourselves in a legal section. This kind of laborious navigation on a thematic site often indicates a problem with the architecture that is not well understood by the visitor.
Knowing how to read the structure of a portal like Habitat Guides allows one to save time and find content that is truly relevant to their project.
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Task-based navigation rather than flowchart: the principle that changes everything
Most editorial sites dedicated to housing organize their pages according to an internal logic (administrative sections, product categories, types of content). Recent recommendations regarding accessibility and user experience advocate for a different approach: structure navigation according to the visitor’s tasks, not according to the site’s flowchart.
In practical terms, this means that menu labels correspond to what one is trying to do (renovate, build, finance, compare) rather than to abstract categories. A well-thought-out site groups content by intention, with clearly associated submenus and visual cues indicating whether sections are open or closed.
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When browsing the structure of the Habitat Guides site, one quickly spots this logic: pages are grouped by operational themes. Taking the time to consult this map provides an overview that the main menu does not always show.
Main menu, footer, and breadcrumb: three levels of navigation to distinguish
The visible menu at the top of the page is often confused with the entirety of the site. On a rich editorial portal, the main navigation represents only a fraction of the available content. Current best practices clearly distinguish three navigation areas, each with a specific role.
- The main navigation (header) focuses on high-value sections, those that the majority of visitors prioritize: practical guides, comparisons, sheets by type of housing.
- The footer groups support links, legal notices, “about” pages, and sometimes secondary sections that would clutter the main menu if included.
- The breadcrumb indicates where one is located in the hierarchy. On a site like Habitat Guides, it allows one to navigate from an article back to its parent category without going through the menu.
When navigating on mobile, this distinction becomes even more pronounced. The menu reduces to a hamburger icon, the footer disappears under scrolling, and the breadcrumb sometimes remains the only reliable marker for understanding the hierarchy.
The specific case of mobile navigation
Recent recommendations treat mobile navigation as a specific use case, not as a reduced version of desktop. Touch targets should be large, and labels should be short. A three-level deep menu on a computer quickly becomes unusable on a smartphone.
On a thematic housing site, it is beneficial to use the internal search bar rather than scrolling through nested submenus. If the site offers an accessible sitemap, it is often the quickest path from a phone.
Orphan pages and crawl depth: what the menu does not show
A common problem on large editorial sites is the gap between the hierarchy intended by the writers and the internal links actually followed by search engines or visitors. Some pages exist but are not linked to any visible section. These are referred to as orphan pages.
For a visitor, this translates to articles that are unfindable via the menu but accessible through a Google search or a direct link. On a housing site, these are often outdated content (old renovation aids, obsolete comparisons) or pages created for a specific need.
Check the actual depth of a piece of content
Crawl depth refers to the number of clicks needed to reach a page from the homepage. Current recommendations emphasize this point: a useful page should never be more than three clicks away from the home. Beyond that, it risks being ignored by search engines and forgotten by readers.
When exploring a site like Habitat Guides, counting the clicks between the homepage and the targeted article gives a good idea of the priority the site assigns to that content. An article accessible in one click from the main menu is a flagship content. An article buried four levels deep is likely secondary or outdated.
HTML sitemap and XML sitemap: two tools, two uses
The term “sitemap” encompasses two distinct realities that are often mixed up. The HTML sitemap is a human-readable page that lists the sections and articles of the site in an organized manner. The XML sitemap is a technical file intended for indexing robots.
For effective navigation, it is the HTML sitemap that serves the visitor. It provides a complete map of the site without going through the menus. One can find sections that would not have been discovered otherwise, thematic guides arranged in unexpected categories, or recent pages not yet highlighted in the main navigation.
The XML sitemap, on the other hand, is only useful for verifying whether a page exists in the eyes of search engines. Feedback on this point varies, but content absent from the XML sitemap is not necessarily deleted; it may simply have been intentionally excluded from indexing.
On a housing portal, getting into the habit of consulting the HTML sitemap before launching an internal search saves time. It helps identify the site’s classification logic, spot the main categories, and avoid going in circles in submenus that do not lead to the right place. It is a simple step that transforms haphazard navigation into methodical exploration.