What’s the best process for restructuring a site’s information architecture?

Restructuring a site’s information architecture requires a strategic, methodical approach that balances user needs with business objectives. At Clear Digital, we’ve refined this process over 25+ years of working with B2B brands, and we know that successful IA restructuring begins long before any design work starts.

Start with Comprehensive Discovery

The foundation of any successful IA restructuring is a thorough discovery process that establishes business context, user needs, and technical requirements. This means understanding where your business is now, where you want to be, and how your website will help you get there. We recommend starting with collaborative workshops that bring together all stakeholders to align on goals, expectations, and project realities from day one.

During discovery, conduct a comprehensive content audit to understand exactly what you’re working with. Many companies underestimate the scope of their existing content, overlooking pages added over time, blog posts, product collateral, and marketing campaign landing pages. This audit helps you identify what content serves your business goals and what can be eliminated, leading to both cost savings and a more focused user experience.

Ground Your Structure in User Research

Effective IA restructuring must be rooted in understanding your actual users, not assumptions about them. Conduct user research to uncover audience behaviors, preferences, and pain points. For B2B tech companies, this means designing for at least three primary buyer personas: the end Users (engineers, analysts, marketers), executive-level Decision Makers, and Recommenders (managers who influence decision-makers).

Additionally, perform a competitive analysis to understand industry standards and identify where your opportunities lie. This research informs how you should organize and label your content to match user expectations while differentiating your brand.

Build Strategic Information Architecture

Everything uncovered in discovery gets incorporated into the UX strategy stage, where you create the skeletal structure of your redesigned site. This information architecture, essentially a visual sitemap, provides a streamlined skeleton of how your website will work. We often color-code sitemaps to illustrate different site categories and which primary persona each section targets.

When structuring your IA, be detailed about labeling content types. Instead of grouping everything under generic headings like “blogs,” break content out by specific traits: articles, infographics, white papers, and podcasts. This detailed categorization allows you to surface relevant content to the right personas at the right time.

Design Wireframes Before Visual Elements

Once your IA structure is established, present wireframes of the navigation design alongside the sitemap, typically in black and white to maintain focus on structure rather than aesthetics. This sequencing is intentional: by presenting structure before visual design, you generate focused feedback on content, narrative, and functionality without distractions. Wireframes show where content needs to appear on pages and areas of emphasis before fonts, colors, and images are applied.

Consider Your Technical Constraints

As you design your restructured IA, remain mindful of your content management system’s capabilities. Most modern CMS platforms can deliver customizable menus and the taxonomy tools needed to execute your redesigned structure, but they all approach it differently. Ensure your CMS can actually implement the structural changes you’re planning before finalizing your approach.

Validate and Iterate

The best IA restructuring processes don’t end at launch. Create clickable prototypes and incorporate user testing to optimize the experience before going live. Monitor how users interact with the finished structure, whether they reach their goals, and if not, why. This feedback loop allows for continuous improvement and ensures your restructured IA truly serves both user needs and business objectives.

The key to successful IA restructuring is investing the time upfront in discovery, user research, and strategic planning. While it may be tempting to jump straight to design, the more thoughtful and comprehensive your approach to restructuring information architecture, the better your website will perform in the long run.