What you’re describing is a very common and intentional pattern in modern CMSs: flat, clean URLs that do not mirror how users actually navigate a site.
URL structure ≠ navigational IA (by design)
In many modern setups (WordPress, headless CMSs, JS-driven menus), URLs are intentionally flat:
/article-title
…but users reach those pages via:
/blog → /category → /article
So when pages appear as siblings of /about, that’s not a bug — it’s the literal URL topology. And you’re correct: URL accuracy alone can be misleading for IA.
That’s why VisualSitemaps separates how URLs exist from how information architecture is modeled.
The two structural logics we support today
VisualSitemaps lets you view and organize a site using two complementary structural models:
Directory-based structure
Groups pages strictly by URL paths. Technically accurate, but limited for flat-URL sites.Referral-based structure
Groups pages based on how they are linked and reached (navigation, contextual links). This is usually the correct starting point for flat URLs.
Docs:
https://support.visualsitemaps.com/en/articles/2117891-what-is-your-site-mapping-structure-based-on
How flat-URL sites are handled in practice (manual IA workflows)
Because there is no standard way menus are coded, no crawler can reliably infer “menu intent” automatically. For flat-URL sites, IA is something you shape intentionally. Today, we support this via (3) fast manual workflows:
Workflow 1 – Build the nav skeleton, then batch-move pages into it
Create your main sections (Blog, Projects, Recipes, etc.), then use batch select + move to group hundreds of flat URLs in seconds.
>> Guide: https://support.visualsitemaps.com/en/articles/2117895-how-to-batch-move-delete-pages
Workflow 2 – Build section maps, then connect them into one master IA
Create separate maps per major section, refine each independently, then link them into a single coherent architecture.
>> Guide: https://support.visualsitemaps.com/en/articles/2117898-how-to-connect-one-sitemap-to-another-sitemap
Workflow 3 – Build a Master IA maps, then import separate directories/pages from other maps, refine each independently via drag n drop.
These workflows are specifically designed for large flat-URL sites where URL paths don’t express structure.
AI Optimization: generating the intended architecture
On top of that, we also offer AI Optimization for teams who want a future-state IA proposal.
Instead of documenting what exists, the AI analyzes internal links, content semantics, and topical relationships to generate a newly proposed sitemap — complete with logical groupings, priorities, and a cleaner structure that reflects how the site should be organized for users and search engines.
This is intentionally prescriptive, not just descriptive — and it’s especially powerful for flat-URL CMS setups.
Bottom line
You’re right: flat URLs are modern, intentional, and common.
And you’re also right that URL siblings ≠ user mental models.
That’s why VisualSitemaps supports:
Multiple structural views (current state)
Fast manual IA shaping workflows (practical control)
AI-generated optimized maps (future state)