In this study, an improved bit-array representation method for structural topology optimization using the Genetic Algorithm (GA) is proposed. The issue of representation degeneracy is fully addressed and the importance of structural connectivity in a design is further emphasized. To evaluate the constrained objective function, Deb's constraint handling approach is further developed to ensure that feasible individuals are always better than infeasible ones in the population to improve the efficiency of the GA. A hierarchical violation penalty method is proposed to drive the GA search towards the topologies with higher structural performance, less unusable material and fewer separate objects in the design domain in a hierarchical manner. Numerical results of structural topology optimization problems of minimum weight and minimum compliance designs show the success of this novel bit-array representation method and suggest that the GA performance can be significantly improved by handling the design connectivity properly.Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)