---
type: "Article"
title: "Search-led information architecture: how we sized our own site by demand"
description: "Most sites are organised by their own org chart, not by how people search. The demand-weighted method we use to fix that, first on a client, then on ourselves."
resource: "https://www.laurelinlabs.com/blog/search-led-information-architecture"
tags: ["search-led-information-architecture", "topical-authority-content"]
generated: { by: "laurelin-site-build/2026-08-25", at: "2026-08-25T12:00:00+00:00" }
status: "stable"
stale_after: "2027-02-25T00:00:00+00:00"
---
# Search-led information architecture: how we sized our own site by demand

Published 2026-07-09, updated 2026-08-25. Author: [Piers Butler](/entities/piers-butler.md).

Search-led information architecture sizes a site's structure by how people actually search rather than by the organisation chart. The method: pull the full keyword universe for the subject, clean it of navigational and false-intent terms, cluster it by intent, weight each cluster by commercial-intent volume, and let the weights decide which topics become primary navigation, which become sub-sections and which are folded into a single page. We ran it first on a client and then on ourselves, which is why this site has one hero hub, four pillars and three cross-cutting tracks ordered by UK search demand.

## FAQ

### What is search-led information architecture?

A method for structuring a website around clustered search demand: the topics people search for most, at the intent that matters commercially, become the primary structure, and editorial or departmental groupings become a secondary layer. It replaces opinion with measured demand.

### How do you weight the clusters?

By cleaned monthly search volume at commercial intent, per market. Navigational and false-intent terms are removed first, because a large cluster of the wrong intent produces the wrong structure.

Hub: [Topical Content](/topics/topical-content.md)