Case Study: Reducing Confusion Caused by Poor Page Hierarchy
- Katina Ndlovu
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Context
This case involved a service-based business whose website had grown organically over time.
New pages were added as services expanded, but no clear hierarchy had been established to guide users through the site.
The result was a website with plenty of information, but no obvious starting point.
The Core Problem- Poor Page Hierarchy
Visitors struggled to understand how the site was organised.
Key services were buried alongside secondary offerings, navigation labels were unclear, and pages competed with each other rather than supporting a clear structure. Users could not easily tell which pages mattered most or how services related to one another.
The issue was not missing content. It was missing hierarchy.
Why This Was a Website Strategy Issue
This was not a visual design problem, it was a poor page hierarchy problem.
When page hierarchy is unclear, users are forced to interpret the structure themselves. That increases friction, slows decision-making, and often leads to early exits. Search engines and
AI systems also struggle to understand which pages are primary versus supporting.
Without hierarchy, clarity breaks down.
The Approach
The work focused on rebuilding structure before changing content.
Key actions included:
Auditing all existing pages to identify primary, secondary, and supporting content
Defining a clear service hierarchy based on what the business actually prioritised
Simplifying navigation labels so users could scan and understand options quickly
Removing or merging pages that duplicated intent
Ensuring each core page had a clear role within the overall structure
The goal was to make the site self-explanatory.
What Changed
After restructuring, the website became easier to navigate and easier to understand.
Primary services were clearly signposted, supporting pages reinforced rather than competed with each other, and the overall flow felt intentional rather than additive.
Visitors no longer needed to explore multiple pages to understand what the business offered.
The site began behaving like a system instead of a collection of pages.
Evidence of Structural Clarity
Before restructuring, services existed as separate pages with equal prominence. There was no clear distinction between core offerings and supporting services, which made it difficult to understand what the business primarily focused on.
Services were effectively presented as a flat list, requiring visitors to infer priority and relationships on their own.
After restructuring, services were organised into a clear hierarchy. Primary offerings were elevated, related services were grouped beneath them, and contextual pages were repositioned to support decision-making rather than compete for attention.
This change clarified intent, reduced overlap between pages, and made the website easier to understand without adding new content or design elements.
Before: Flat service structure
Services were presented as separate pages with equal weight, including multiple offerings that appeared unrelated or equally important.
After: Hierarchical service structure
Services were reorganised into a clear structure, with primary offerings defined first and supporting services grouped logically beneath them.
This shift reduced ambiguity and made the site’s purpose clearer at a glance.
Why This Matters for Website Design and Strategy
Websites fail more often from poor structure than poor design.
When hierarchy is clear, users can orient themselves quickly, and systems can categorise content more accurately. Strategy determines whether design and content can do their job.
Where This Pattern Applies
This issue commonly appears in:
Websites that have grown over several years
Service businesses adding offerings without restructuring
Sites where every page feels equally important
Navigation built incrementally rather than intentionally
Relationship to Website Design and Strategy Work
This case reflects website design and strategy work focused on information architecture, clarity, and decision-making. It shows how restructuring hierarchy can improve understanding without changing the underlying services or adding complexity.
Case Study FAQs
What problem does this case study demonstrate?
It demonstrates how unclear page hierarchy can make a website harder to understand, even when the content itself is accurate.
Why wasn’t a redesign required to fix this?
Because the issue was structural, not visual. Clarifying hierarchy improved understanding without changing the design.
How was hierarchy established?
By clearly defining which services were primary, which were supporting, and how pages related to each other through structure and grouping.
Does this case study show performance results?
No. It focuses on clarity and interpretability rather than traffic, conversion, or revenue metrics.
Who is most affected by this type of issue?
Service-based businesses that have added pages over time without revisiting overall site structure.
If your website has grown over time and now feels hard to navigate or explain, this work focuses on restoring clarity through structure rather than redesign.
You can explore related case studies below or get in touch to discuss how your site is currently organised and understood.
About the Author
Katina Ndlovu works on website design and strategy with a focus on structure, hierarchy, and interpretability. Her work helps businesses organise content so websites are easier to understand for users, search engines, and AI systems.
She documents applied strategy work through case studies to show how clarity improves when structure is intentional rather than incremental.
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