Sequence-based XML indexing aims at avoiding expensive join operations in query processing. It transforms structured XML data into sequences so that a structured query can be answered holistically through subsequence matching. Herein, there is addressed the problem of query equivalence with respect to this transformation, and thereis introduced a performance-oriented principle for sequencing tree structures. With query equivalence, XML queries can be performed through subsequence matching without join operations, post-processing, or other special handling for problems such as false alarms. There is identified a class of sequencing methods for this purpose, and there is presented a novel subsequence matching algorithm that observe query equivalence. Also introduced is a performance-oriented principle to guide the sequencing of tree structures. For any given XML dataset, the principle finds an optimal sequencing strategy according to its schema and its data distribution; there is thus presented herein a novel method that realizes this principle.