A DIY site quickly accumulates hundreds of references, tutorials, product sheets, and buying guides. Without a well-thought-out architecture, visitors abandon the site before finding what they are looking for. Since June 2025, the French transposition of the European directive 2019/882 (European Accessibility Act) adds an additional constraint: navigation must also be accessible, under penalty of sanctions.
Accessibility and DIY site structure: the regulatory constraint that changes the game
Law No. 2023-171 of March 9, 2023, supplemented by Decree No. 2023-931 and the order of October 9, 2023, requires B2C e-commerce sites to comply with RGAA 4.1.2 and the EN 301 549 standard (WCAG 2.1 AA). Online DIY sites are affected as soon as they exceed the threshold of a micro-enterprise.
In practical terms, this means that keyboard navigation, hierarchical headings, and accessible transactional paths are no longer options. A dropdown menu that only works with a mouse, categories without semantic markup, or an inaccessible checkout tunnel expose the site to fines of up to 50,000 euros per non-compliant service.
This obligation encourages a rethink of the structure from the design stage. A DIY site that classifies its products into visual categories (icons without alternative text, graphic-only filters) will need to revise its approach. The hierarchy of headings (H1, H2, H3) must accurately reflect the organization of the content, not serve as typographic decoration.
To observe how a specialized site organizes its sections and its linking structure, the structure of the Blog du Bricoleur site provides a concrete example of thematic categorization applied to DIY.
Categorization of DIY products: thinking by project rather than by aisle
The majority of DIY sites replicate the layout of a physical store: a paint aisle, a plumbing aisle, an electrical aisle. This logic works for an experienced DIYer who knows exactly what product to look for. It fails for the visitor who types “redo my bathroom” or “insulate a garage.”
Organizing part of the tree structure by project type changes navigation. A “Projects” section that groups tutorials, material lists, and product sheets related to the same task allows capturing long-tail queries. The visitor finds a guide, checks the list of tools, adds to the cart, all without leaving a coherent branch of the site.
However, this approach does not replace classification by product category. Both must coexist. The main menu can offer classic categories (tools, hardware, coverings), while a secondary entry directs towards projects. The internal linking then connects product sheets to the relevant guides.
Criteria for effective categorization
- Limit the depth to a maximum of three levels: category, sub-category, product sheet. Beyond that, the bounce rate increases, and indexing bots struggle to explore deep pages.
- Name each category with the terms that users actually type into Google, not with internal jargon or manufacturer range names.
- Provide sub-category pages with editorial content (introduction, selection tips, comparison table) so that these pages have intrinsic value in the eyes of search engines.
- Ensure that every page on the site is reachable within three clicks from the homepage, which requires regularly monitoring the growth of the tree structure.
Internal linking and faceted navigation on a DIY site
The internal linking of a DIY site poses a specific problem: the volume of pages. Between product sheets, guides, seasonal promotions, and category pages, the risk of diluting PageRank is real. Each internal link must serve a specific purpose, either guiding the user to a complementary page or passing authority to a strategic page.
Faceted navigation (filters by brand, price, material, dimensions) potentially generates thousands of URLs. Without technical handling, these URLs are indexed by Google, creating duplicate content and wasting crawl budget. Common solutions involve canonical tags, selective blocking in robots.txt, or using noindex attributes on less sought-after filter combinations.
Bread crumb and contextual menu
The breadcrumb is not a cosmetic detail. On a DIY site, it serves two functions: it allows the visitor to navigate back up the tree structure without using the back button, and it generates structured data (schema.org BreadcrumbList) that Google displays in search results.
A poorly configured breadcrumb betrays a shaky structure. If the displayed path seems inconsistent (Home > Promotions > Drill Driver while the product belongs to Tools > Drills), it is a sign that the underlying structure deserves an audit.
Navigation audit: signals indicating a structural problem
Behavioral analysis tools (heat maps, session recordings) reveal recurring patterns on poorly structured DIY sites. Visitors click on the logo to return to the homepage instead of using the menu, suggesting that the navigation labels are not clear enough.
A high exit rate on category pages often signals a problem of depth or labeling. The visitor arrives on “Power Tools,” does not immediately find the sub-category that corresponds to their need, and leaves the site.
Field feedback diverges on the usefulness of a mega-menu (a dropdown menu displaying all sub-categories) for DIY sites. Some tests show an improvement in the click-through rate to sub-categories, while others point to cognitive overload, especially on mobile where display space is limited.
- Check in Search Console data which deep pages are actually indexed and which are ignored by Google.
- Identify orphan pages (without incoming internal links) using a complete crawl of the site.
- Compare the actual user journey with the journey intended during the design of the tree structure.
The structure of a DIY site is never static. The addition of new ranges, seasonal promotions, and the evolution of user queries require regular adjustments. A semi-annual audit of the tree structure and internal linking remains the most reliable way to maintain navigation that works, both for visitors and search engines.
