The new sites that are being made online today are often very elaborate. They can contain as many as ten or more pages; and within these pages, countless more subpages can be found. Thus, it can be quite tedious for users in finding their way on the site. This is where the sitemap comes in handy for many webmasters.
So what is a sitemap? As the name implies, it is, in simple terms, a map of your website. More clearly, a sitemap is a page in your site that lists all the pages (including it) that you have. These are arranged in order asnd each entry in the list links directly to the page it refers to. The sitemap, thus provides quick access to all the pages in your site for users.
It is actually quite easy to set up a sitemap. Often, it can just be a page simply containing a list connected to the pages, as described above. Or you can actually be a bit more elaborate and provide a more graphical description of your site's layout, showing what page leads to where. You can also add thumbnails to show what each page looks like.
But even with the relative ease of making the sitemap, some webmasters often don't want to make this one. This is mainly due to the tedious task of linking every page to the map. However, this one is definitely a bad practice, as the sitemap provides many other uses, not only for users, but also for search engines.
For users (and even the webmaster himself), the sitemap provides and easy to use reference to know what the site contains and how to get to each section. On the other hand, a sitemap can also help search engines to crawl your pages much better, as it provides an organized page to start the indexing.
In order for you to make sure that the sitemap will indeed work, you need to keep in mind a few reminders in creating the map. First of all, the map should be easy to understand. Often, as have been mentioned, a text outline will do the trick. For those who want to go for the graphical maps, you should make sure the presentation is clear and that users can easily trace your links. Also it would be a good idea to put in a short description of the page that the link goes into.
Also keep in mind that you should put a link on all of your pages that go into the sitemap. This way, users would be able to easily access it from anywhere in your site. Lastly, as is always with making a website, make sure that all of the links in your sitemap are in proper working order.
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