A heritage website brings together very different content: collection pages, practical information, cultural agenda, educational resources, exhibition archives. Without a structured site map, this content ends up scattered, making it difficult to find for both visitors and search engines. Organizing the plan of a heritage site first means deciding which paths to offer to audiences with different expectations.
Archiving temporary exhibitions in the site plan
Have you ever searched for a past exhibition on a museum’s website, only to land on a deleted page or a 404 error? This problem arises from a choice of structure: many sites delete the page of an exhibition as soon as it ends.
However, a temporary exhibition page retains real value. It contains scientific context, the names of curators, and sometimes authorized visuals. Keeping these pages online supports long-term SEO, as other sites, blogs, or news articles continue to link to them.
In the site plan, include a section for “Archives” or “Past Exhibitions” at the same level as “Current Exhibitions.” Each archived page links back to the current programming. A visitor arriving through an old link finds useful content instead of a dead end and discovers what is currently being offered.
To see how a French-speaking heritage site structures its sections and archived pages, the site map of Le patrimoscope provides a concrete example of readable hierarchy.
Structure of a heritage site: think in terms of visitor pathways, not an organizational chart
The most common mistake is to base the site map on the internal organizational chart of the institution. A section for “Public Services,” another for “Conservation,” another for “Communication.” The visitor, however, does not know these services. They are looking for concrete answers.
Instead, think in terms of user pathways. A family wants to know what to see with children, how much it costs, and if the stroller can get around. A teacher is looking for downloadable educational offerings. A foreign tourist checks the available languages and schedules.
Each main section of the plan corresponds to a visitor’s intention, not to an internal department. Here are the sections that cover the majority of needs:
- Preparing your visit (hours, prices, access, accessibility, available languages)
- Collections and exhibitions (permanent, temporary, archives)
- Activities and mediation (workshops, guided tours, school offerings, groups)
- Resources and documentation (publications, databases, educational files)
- Agenda (event calendar, filterable by audience type)
A “About” section groups the history of the place, the team, partners, and legal mentions. It exists, but it does not need to occupy the top level of navigation.
Digital accessibility and structure of the website site map
Since June 28, 2025, the European Accessibility Act extends certain digital accessibility obligations to the private sector, particularly for services offering ticketing or online reservations. A heritage site that sells tickets or manages registrations falls within this scope.
In practical terms, this means that the structure must integrate accessibility from its design, not as a fix applied afterward. Keyboard navigation must work on all pages. Text alternatives accompany each image. Contrast levels must meet required thresholds.
Accessibility is not limited to technical compliance. For a heritage site, it also concerns visitor information. A visitor with a disability needs to know, before traveling, if there is an accessible route, if audio description is offered, and if hearing loops are installed.
Provide a dedicated section or accessibility filters in the “Preparing your visit” section. Spreading this information across multiple pages forces the visitor to search, effectively blocking their access.
Structured data and XML sitemap for a heritage site
The site map visible to visitors (the HTML page with links) and the XML sitemap read by search engines serve two distinct functions. The first guides a human. The second tells robots which pages to prioritize for indexing and how often to revisit them.
For a heritage site, the XML sitemap deserves special attention regarding event pages. An exhibition lasting three months, a one-time concert, a recurring workshop: each type has a different lifecycle. Assign an appropriate update frequency to each section of the sitemap. Agenda pages change often, while collection pages change rarely.
Structured data (schema.org) complements the sitemap. The Event markup allows Google to display dates, location, and price directly in search results. The Museum or LandmarksOrHistoricalBuildings markup helps engines understand the nature of the site. These markups should be decided at the time of planning, not after the site goes live.
CMS and editorial management of the site plan
A well-thought-out site plan is useless if the team cannot maintain it on a daily basis. The choice of CMS determines how easily content can be published, archived, and reorganized.
The question to ask is: who updates the site, and with what technical skills? In many heritage institutions, it is mediators or communication officers, not developers. The CMS must allow for creating, moving, and archiving a page without technical intervention.
Ensure that the chosen CMS natively manages the parent-child hierarchy of pages, so that the structure remains coherent when adding a sub-section. Also check that it automatically generates the XML sitemap and offers a redirection system when a URL changes. A moved page without redirection creates a 404 error, exactly the problem mentioned for archived exhibitions.
A well-structured heritage site relies on decisions made before writing any content. The site plan determines the online visitor experience just as the scenography determines the physical visit experience. Each section responds to an intention, each archived page retains its value, and each modification remains possible without calling a service provider.
