Planet13 - 7:20 pm on Dec 5, 2010 (gmt 0)

I also use a hierarchy of links (#location) that clearly shows how URL's relate both to search engines as well as to human visitors.

I have a question / issue with this statement.

Could not two different human visitors have different ideas of what "clear" is?

Take a company that sells car parts.

One person might consider the following as a clear structure:

part type -> Make -> Model -> Year
(all manufacturers of the part appear on the same page)

One might consider this as clear:

part type -> Manufacturer -> Part
(i.e., all parts made by XYZ company on one page)

another might find this more useful:

Function -> part
(e.g., All products that increase fuel economy on one page, or all products that boost torque on one page, or all products for improving the sound system / audio quality on one page)

So when it comes to structure / navigation, how do we know whose version of "clear" to use?

One other thing:

Matt Cutts has said in his videos and interviews that a human site map is a good thing. He has also said that faceted navigation CAN be a bad thing.

So maybe there should be one "left-hand" navigational structure, and an alternative structure for how the site map is laid out?