SEO Architecture Analyzer

The free tool to visualise any website structure and spot the clusters that really drive traffic!

Le guide complet de l'analyse d'architecture SEO

What is a site's SEO architecture?

SEO architecture refers to the way a website organises its pages: its directories, categories and subcategories. It’s also known as website structure. It reveals which topics a site covers and how much weight it gives to each one.

Our analyzer rebuilds this structure from the sitemap, then breaks it down into clusters of pages. Add a Semrush export and you’ll also see which clusters actually drive organic traffic. The tool works for your own site as well as your competitors’.

Anatomy of a website structure

https://www.example.com / seo / glossary / article-spinning /

Domain / Level separator Category (Dir_1) Subcategory (Dir_2) Sub-subcategory (Dir_3)

⚠️ The golden rule: no sitemap, no analysis

This is the one limitation to know before you start. The tool relies on the sitemap, the file that lists a site’s pages to help search engines index them. If the site you want to analyze doesn’t have one, the analysis can’t run.

The tool tries to detect the sitemap automatically from the robots.txt file. If you already know its address, add it manually: it’s the most reliable method.

How to find a site's sitemap

1️⃣ The first method goes through the robots.txt file. Type the site’s address followed by /robots.txt into your browser, then search for the term “sitemap” with Ctrl + F (Cmd + F on Mac). You’ll get the sitemap URL straight away, usually in .xml format. Bear in mind that not every site declares its sitemap in this file.

2️⃣ The second is to try the CMS default address:

WordPress: /sitemap.xml or /sitemap_index.xml
Shopify and Wix: /sitemap.xml
PrestaShop: /1_index_sitemap.xml

⚠️ It’s not an exact science. Some site owners deliberately change their sitemap URL to make life harder for their competitors. In that case, robots.txt remains your best ally.

How to get your Semrush export

In Semrush:

1️⃣ Enter the site’s address with the “root domain” option.

2️⃣ Select the market you’re interested in.

3️⃣ Then click the number of keywords ranking in that market, click “Export” and download the file in “CSV Semicolon” format.

All that’s left is to upload it to the tool.

Without this file, you can see how the site is broken down, but not the SEO performance of each cluster.

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⚙️ The 4 steps to launch the analysis

Enter the site URL

Enter the address of the site you want to analyse: your own or a competitor's.

Add the sitemap Optional

If you found its address using the method above, add it manually. Otherwise, the tool tries to detect it automatically via robots.txt.

Upload your Semrush file Optional

Choose the export of keywords ranking in the market you want to analyse. Without it, you can see the site's structure, but not its performance.

Click “Analyze”

Let the tool do the work! Your results then appear in four tabs: Structure, URLs, Performance and Orphaned.

Reading your results: 4 metrics and 4 tabs

The 4 key metrics

Total URLs

Pages listed in the sitemap

URLs with Traffic

Pages that generate traffic

Total Traffic

The site's estimated SEO traffic

Total Keywords

Keywords the site ranks for

The 4 results tabs

Structure

The site structure in clusters

URLs

A filterable list of every page

Performance

How each cluster performs

Orphaned

Pages with traffic outside the sitemap

Tip: a big gap between Total URLs and URLs with Traffic can reveal underperforming pages.

⚠️ Orphan pages: the definition that causes confusion

In common usage, an orphan page is a page that receives no internal links. In our tool, the Orphaned tab means something else: URLs that generate traffic according to Semrush but don’t appear in the sitemap.

For each one, you get the traffic, the number of keywords, the search volume and the market concerned. These pages are already performing even though the site doesn’t declare them to search engines. Adding them to the sitemap is often a quick win worth taking.

Tab reference table

Tab	Semrush export	Data shown	What it's for
Structure	Not required	Clusters URL count Sub-levels	Understand how a site is organised at a glance
URLs	Recommended	Dir_1 Dir_2 Dir_3 Traffic Keywords	See which pages make up each cluster
Performance	Required	Level URLs Traffic Keywords Volume	Compare clusters and spot the winning topics
Orphaned	Required	Traffic Keywords Volume Markets	Find pages that generate traffic without being in the sitemap

Key takeaway: without a Semrush export, only the Structure tab is complete. Performance and Orphaned rely on it entirely.

The 3 traps to avoid at all costs

Mistaking the sitemap for the whole site

The analysis reflects what the site declares in its sitemap, not necessarily everything that's live. An incomplete sitemap gives an incomplete architecture. Always check the Orphaned tab to spot pages that slip through the sitemap.

Picking the wrong market in the Semrush export

A Semrush export covers one specific market. If you analyse the French version of a site with another country's data, your performance by cluster will be skewed. Check the market before you export.

Judging a cluster by its size

In the Structure tab, the size of a block depends on the number of URLs, not on traffic. A big cluster isn't necessarily a high-performing one. Only the Performance tab will tell you which ones really matter.