When I first started Action With AI, I wrote about subjects that interested me.
Artificial intelligence was developing quickly, so there was no shortage of possibilities. I wrote about large language models, individual AI tools and AI more generally. The site grew, but it did not have a properly planned structure.
I eventually narrowed the website’s purpose to helping people build useful hobby websites with AI and real human experience. That was an improvement, but choosing a clearer subject did not automatically produce a complete website.
I was particularly interested in experimenting with Google AI Mode, so that was where I continued to concentrate much of my attention. I tested responses, investigated citations and wrote articles about the results.
Those posts were useful, but they covered only one part of what someone building a hobby website needed to know.
The important breakthrough came when I stopped thinking only about the next interesting article and started considering the reader’s entire journey.
What questions would someone need answered if they wanted to go from an initial hobby idea to a useful working website?
That question changed how I planned the site.
Interesting articles do not automatically create a complete website
A website can contain plenty of substantial articles while still leaving important gaps.
My AI Mode experiments helped readers understand how AI-generated answers work, how sources can be checked and how gaps in existing information can create content opportunities. They fitted well within the broader subject of creating genuinely helpful content.
However, a new hobby website owner also needed help with questions such as:
- Which hobby should I choose?
- What equipment and services do I need?
- Should I use an all-in-one platform or separate hosting?
- How do I choose a domain?
- How do I install WordPress?
- Which settings should I change?
- How do I choose a theme?
- Which plugins do I need?
- What should I do about privacy and cookies?
- How will I back up the site?
- How can I eventually attract an audience?
Writing several excellent articles about one part of that journey would not answer the other questions.
This does not mean that the AI Mode posts were a mistake. I enjoyed researching them, and that enjoyment kept me writing. They also helped me develop an evidence-led content method that became an important part of the website.
The problem was not the posts themselves. The problem was that I had not yet mapped the larger journey around them.
Choosing a niche is not the same as planning its coverage
Narrowing Action With AI from general AI tools to hobby website building gave the site a clearer purpose.
However, a purpose is still only a broad statement.
Saying, “I help people build hobby websites,” does not tell me:
- which stages the reader goes through;
- which questions belong within each stage;
- which subjects deserve detailed posts;
- how those posts should connect;
- where a beginner should start.
That requires another layer of planning.
A useful structure begins with the intended reader rather than the website menu.
In my case, the broad journey became:
- Understand what building a hobby website involves.
- Choose a suitable hobby and focus.
- Build the website.
- Create genuinely helpful content.
- Find an audience.
- Develop appropriate earning opportunities.
These stages could then become the main areas of the site:
- Start Here
- Choose Your Hobby
- Build Your Website
- Create Helpful Content
- Find Your Audience
- Earn From Your Site
The sections are not arbitrary categories created to fill a menu. Each one represents a distinct stage in the reader’s progress.
How I audited my existing website
By the time I recognised the need for a complete plan, Action With AI already contained a substantial collection of posts and pages.
I could have tried to remember what everything covered, but that would have been unreliable and unnecessarily time-consuming.
Instead, I exported the post and page information from WordPress and supplied it to ChatGPT.
We used that information to:
- identify the principal subject of every article;
- group connected articles;
- map the reader’s complete journey;
- compare the existing content with that journey;
- identify areas with substantial coverage;
- expose important gaps;
- develop a production order;
- identify internal-linking opportunities.
The resulting spreadsheet made the imbalance much easier to see.
The site contained meaningful depth around AI Mode experimentation and helpful content, but far less coverage of some of the practical steps needed to build a website from the beginning.
Counting the total number of posts would not have revealed that. A site could have 100 posts and still leave an important part of its reader’s journey almost completely unanswered.
The audit showed not only what I had written, but what the site still needed to become genuinely useful.
AI can help organise the evidence, but you still set the purpose
ChatGPT was extremely useful during the audit, but it did not independently decide what Action With AI should become.
I had to establish:
- who I wanted to help;
- what I wanted the site to accomplish;
- which subjects reflected my experience;
- whether the proposed categories made sense;
- whether a suggested article genuinely belonged.
The AI could classify posts, identify patterns and compare coverage against the intended journey. I still had to judge whether its conclusions reflected the website I wanted to build.
Someone could repeat this process using an AI assistant, a spreadsheet or even pieces of paper spread across a table.
The essential process is:
List the existing content, identify what each item covers and compare the result with the reader’s complete journey.
The tool makes the work quicker. The website owner still provides the direction.
What is a hub page?
Each main stage of the Action With AI journey is intended to have a hub page.
A hub page introduces a broad area and connects the detailed posts that explore its individual questions.
A useful hub page can:
- explain why the stage matters;
- introduce its main decisions;
- divide a complicated subject into manageable parts;
- direct the reader to detailed guidance;
- recommend a sensible reading order;
- help the reader decide what to do next.
It should be more than a list of article titles.
A reader who does not open every supporting post should still understand the broad picture. Someone who needs more help can follow the relevant links for detailed guidance.
The resulting structure looks like this:
Homepage or Start Here
↓
Journey-stage hub
↓
Detailed supporting posts
↔
Related supporting posts
For example, the Build Your Website hub can introduce the complete setup stage before linking to separate articles about hosting, domains, WordPress installation, settings, themes, plugins, privacy and backups.
Plan the hub first and finish it last
I am currently writing the detailed Build Your Website posts.
I already know the purpose of the future hub and the broad questions it needs to cover. However, I intend to write the finished hub page after completing its main supporting articles.
That may sound like writing the structure backwards, but there is an important distinction:
- I planned the hub and supporting topics first.
- I am writing the detailed posts next.
- I will produce or revise the finished hub when I know exactly what content exists.
This avoids publishing a hub filled with links to articles that have not yet been written. It also allows the final hub to reflect what each supporting post genuinely covers.
A practical sequence is:
- Sketch the hub’s purpose.
- List the main questions within it.
- Plan the supporting articles.
- Write those articles.
- Check whether any important gaps remain.
- Write or update the finished hub.
- Add links in both directions.
The plan exists from the beginning, but the hub is finalised after its supporting material takes shape.
Give each post one principal home
I generally want each post to belong to one main hub.
Some subjects will overlap. A post about backups, for example, belongs primarily under Build Your Website. Another article about preserving research photographs might mention backups as part of creating helpful content.
That does not mean the backup guide needs to be placed under both hubs. The content-creation article can link directly to it when the subject becomes relevant.
This gives each article a clear principal role without isolating it from related ideas elsewhere on the site.
It also prevents the structure from becoming unnecessarily complicated. If every article belongs everywhere, the hubs stop providing meaningful guidance.
This is a working preference rather than an inflexible technical rule. The important objective is that a reader can understand where they are and why a particular article has been recommended.
Link hubs and supporting posts in both directions
Once a hub exists, its supporting posts should link back to it where that helps the reader return to the broader journey.
The hub should also link to each relevant supporting post.
Connected supporting posts can link directly to one another when the next article answers a question naturally raised by the current one.
For example, an article about choosing hosting might link to:
- all-in-one platforms versus separate hosting;
- installing WordPress;
- website backups;
- essential plugins.
Internal links should not be added merely to increase their number. Each link should have a clear reason to exist.
A useful internal link:
- answers the reader’s likely next question;
- explains a term without repeating an entire section;
- connects two parts of a process;
- provides more detailed evidence;
- helps the reader continue their journey.
These connections can also help crawlers discover pages and understand their relationships. Google says it uses links to find pages and as signals when assessing their relevance. Google’s link guidance
Readers remain the best starting point: if a link is useful to them, it is more likely to represent a genuine connection.
Hub pages and category archives are different
WordPress automatically creates an archive for each category. That archive normally displays posts assigned to the category, often with the most recently published article first.
A hub page is deliberately written and organised.
A category archive helps classify and collect posts. A hub page explains how those posts fit together and guides someone through them.
The two may cover similar subject matter, but they perform different jobs.
A category archive might show:
Newest article
Previous article
Earlier article
Older article
A hub can instead organise the same material as:
Begin here
Choose this first
Set this up next
Understand this before publishing
Protect your work
Publication date is not necessarily the most useful learning order.
Category descriptions are still worthwhile because they explain what the collection represents. However, I do not rely on category archives to replace the more deliberate guidance provided by hub pages.
When a category communicates the wrong meaning
One of my original categories was called AI Mode Analysis.
Search Console data suggested that this phrase might be encouraging the wrong interpretation. The site appeared to be receiving impressions connected with people looking for AI Mode analysis tools rather than experiments examining how AI Mode answered different questions.
I changed the category to AI Mode Experiments because that described the content more accurately.
I also:
- changed the category slug;
- redirected the old address to the new one;
- added a category description;
- retained the existing posts.
The posts had not become irrelevant. The label surrounding them had been communicating the wrong idea.
This example also provides an important warning. Categories, slugs and menus should not be changed repeatedly whenever slightly different wording occurs to you.
Frequent structural changes can create broken addresses, unnecessary redirects and confusion for both visitors and crawlers.
Make a change when there is evidence of a meaningful problem. If an indexed URL changes, establish an appropriate redirect so requests for the previous address reach the replacement.
Enjoyment still matters
If I had started again, I would have mapped the reader’s journey before producing so many individual posts.
That would have been more efficient, but efficiency is not the only consideration.
I enjoyed conducting the AI Mode experiments. They gave me reasons to keep investigating, testing and writing. They also produced original material that could not have been created simply by summarising other websites.
A rigid content plan that removes everything the owner enjoys may be organised perfectly but never get completed.
A better approach is to balance structure with curiosity.
When a new idea appears, ask:
- Which reader would this help?
- Which stage of their journey does it support?
- Does it deepen an existing subject?
- Does it connect with something already published?
- Is it genuinely outside the website’s purpose?
An interesting detour can still belong within the plan. The structure helps you understand where it fits.
Less enjoyable gaps can still be valuable
The plan has also led me to research subjects I would not naturally have prioritised.
Website backups are a good example. I found experimenting with AI Mode more interesting than investigating WordPress databases and hosting restore points.
However, following the reader’s journey showed that backups were essential. Researching the article then exposed gaps in my own knowledge.
I learned that:
- WordPress files and its database are separate;
- FileZilla does not normally create a database backup;
- backup plugins can conflict with hosting restrictions;
- WA backs up my complete files and database every night;
- SiteSupport can generate a downloadable full-site archive.
That work did not merely fill a content gap. It improved my own website arrangements.
This is one of the benefits of following the reader’s journey:
When you investigate an unanswered question properly, you may develop your own skills while creating something useful for somebody else.
First-hand learning can then become evidence within the article.
What belongs in the main menu?
The main menu should help visitors navigate the central journey.
For Action With AI, the intended structure is broadly:
- Start Here
- Choose Your Hobby
- Build Your Website
- Create Helpful Content
- Find Your Audience
- Earn From Your Site
Not every useful page belongs in that menu.
Pages such as these can sit within a separate utility or footer menu:
- About
- Contact
- Privacy Policy
- Cookie Policy
- Affiliate Disclosure
Those pages are important, but they are not stages in the process of building a hobby website.
Keeping the distinction prevents the main navigation from becoming crowded. A menu should not be filled simply because a theme demonstration happened to include numerous menu items.
Should the homepage show the latest posts?
Action With AI currently uses the blogroll as its homepage. The Start Here guide exists as a separate page.
A blogroll has some advantages:
- it shows recent activity;
- returning readers can see new posts;
- it updates automatically;
- it requires little maintenance.
However, it may not provide the best introduction for someone encountering the site for the first time.
A new visitor sees whichever posts happened to be published most recently. Those articles may come from different stages and may not explain what the site is trying to help them achieve.
A static, journey-led homepage can instead:
- state who the site is for;
- explain its main purpose;
- introduce the major stages;
- direct beginners to the appropriate starting point.
For Action With AI, I can imagine the Start Here page—or a revised version of it—eventually working better as the homepage.
I do not need to change it immediately. The hubs are still being developed, so the homepage would currently direct readers towards an incomplete structure.
Once the major hubs exist, I can review the Start Here page, use it as the static homepage and place the blogroll on a separate page called Latest Posts or Blog.
WordPress allows one page to be selected as the homepage and another as the posts page through Settings → Reading. WordPress Reading Settings
Does the blogroll help crawlers find every post?
I previously wondered whether keeping the blogroll as the homepage gave crawlers one place where they could find all my posts.
A blogroll may contribute to discovery, but it does not normally display everything permanently. Older articles move onto paginated archive pages as new posts are published.
Crawlers can also discover content through:
- XML sitemaps;
- main menus;
- hub pages;
- category archives;
- internal links.
Google describes a sitemap as a file that supplies information about important pages and their relationships, helping search engines crawl a website more efficiently. Google’s sitemap guidance
I therefore do not need to keep the blogroll as the homepage solely for crawler discovery. The homepage should primarily serve the people arriving there.
How to plan a new hobby website
If you are starting from the beginning, use this process:
- Write one sentence explaining who the website helps.
- List the main stages that person will pass through.
- Turn each substantial stage into a proposed hub.
- List the questions that belong within each hub.
- Decide which questions need their own detailed posts.
- Check for missing stages and duplicated subjects.
- Arrange the hubs in a sensible order.
- Start writing the supporting posts.
- Finalise each hub as its supporting content becomes available.
- Link hubs and posts in both directions.
- Leave some room for relevant experiments and spontaneous ideas.
Do not worry if the finished website develops slightly differently from the first plan. A plan provides direction; it does not prevent sensible refinement.
How to reorganise an existing website
If you have already published without a clear structure, you do not need to delete everything and begin again.
Instead:
- Export or list all existing posts and pages.
- Summarise the main subject of each one.
- Group related articles.
- Map the intended reader’s complete journey.
- Place the existing content against that journey.
- Identify well-covered and missing areas.
- Retain useful content that supports the website’s purpose.
- Clarify misleading category names or descriptions.
- Avoid URL changes unless they solve a genuine problem.
- Create an ordered production queue.
- Build hub pages as their supporting material develops.
- Add internal links that help readers move through connected ideas.
The objective is not to make every article fit at any cost. It is to understand what the existing site contains and what it still needs.
Structure gives your writing a destination
Writing about whatever interests you can be an enjoyable way to begin. It helped me explore AI, develop original experiments and discover the kind of work I wanted Action With AI to contain.
However, a collection of interesting posts does not automatically guide a reader from their first question to a useful result.
Mapping the complete journey revealed that I had developed one area extensively while leaving other essential stages largely uncovered. Exporting and auditing the existing content turned that realisation into a practical production plan.
If I were starting again, I would build that plan earlier.
I would not remove curiosity from the process. The AI Mode experiments remain valuable precisely because I enjoyed conducting them and developed a distinctive approach through that work.
The aim is to combine both elements:
Build a structured route through the questions your reader needs answered, while leaving enough room to follow the ideas that keep you learning and creating.
That produces a website that is more useful to the reader—and more rewarding for the person building it.