# SMX Now: Build better site architecture for SEO, AI, and users

> Source: <https://searchengineland.com/smx-now-build-better-site-architecture-for-seo-ai-and-users-481640>
> Published: 2026-07-06 15:33:46+00:00

[SEO](https://searchengineland.com/library/seo) »

# SMX Now: Build better site architecture for SEO, AI, and users

## Learn a proven five-phase framework for clearer navigation, stronger taxonomy, and content AI can access. Join us for the next SMX Now.

Advanced architecture is no longer just technical structure. It determines whether your content can be found, understood, and surfaced by search engines and AI systems.

Our next **SMX Now **on July 15 features Shari Thurow, co-founder, information scientist, and search director at the Information Architecture Gateway. She’ll explain how advanced architecture works and where most AI, SEO, and site development workflows fall short.

The session introduces a five-phase framework Thurow has tested through decades of client work with organizations including Microsoft, Google Cloud, Abbott Laboratories, CVS Pharmacy, WebMD, Sony Music, the Library of Congress, Best Buy, and Merriam-Webster. You’ll learn how architecture decisions shape labeling systems, wayfinding networks, taxonomy, wireframes, and AI access to valuable content.

It also challenges long-standing misconceptions, including the three-click rule, the idea that taxonomy is only a hierarchy, and the belief that AI can generate effective wireframes without a deeper architectural model.

You’ll leave with a practical framework for building sites that communicate more clearly with users, search engines, and human-centered AI systems.

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