Tips on Creating a Site Map
By Rachel Gawith
A quick search on Google for advice
on creating a site map initially
threw up many links to software
you could buy or download for free
to create a site map.
But why do you need a site map?
Basically as websites get larger
and more complex both the human
browser and the search engine spiders
need an easy to follow map to find
all the pages within your site.
A site map gives them a simple navigational
tool.
Site maps have 3 main benefits:
1) A site map allows visitors to
easily find what they are looking
for by simply visiting your site
map and clicking on the link to
go directly to the page they want
to visit.
2) Often technologies employed
to assist in reading webpages such
as web page readers and screen readers
can only follow text links. For
practical reasons it may not always
be possible to show a text link
to every other page within your
site on your main page and other
pages within your website and so
use a site map.
3) Search engine spiders like text
and text links. If they cannot follow
a text link to a page of your site
it may not get indexed. Make it
easy for the spider to index all
your pages through a site map.
A site map consists of the two
things search engines love - text
and keywords. To build a good site
map combine relevant keywords with
a hyper text links. For example
on your site map you may have a
link to your webpage about website
promotion so your hyperlink should
contains the words 'website promotion'
and link directly to that page within
your site.
A site map does not need and indeed
should not be fancy, but should
be clear and easy to navigate.
Here are some tips for a good site
map:
1. Place a prominent link to your
site map on every page and lable
it SITE MAP.
2. It should show all your webpages
through different levels as basic
text links.
3. Use standard colours for links
and visited links.
4. It should show a quick, easy
to follow over view of the site
without the need to scroll around
in the web browser.
Google started allowing people
to submit site maps to their account
as a way of letting google know
about all your webpages and updates
to your site. It does not increase
your page ranking at all but is
worth taking the time to set up
properly.
You can find free software for
creating site maps at:
http://www.likno.com/sitemap.html
http://www.freesitemapgenerator.com
http://www.sitemapspal.com
And when you are done, don't forget
to tell Google about your site map
so they can trawl and hopefully
index all the pages of your site.
http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login
A well planned site map can ensure
your Web site is fully indexed by
search engines.
Rachel Gawith runs her own homebased
business website at http://www.computerincome.net
where you can find recommended business
opportunities, ebook reviews, articles,
classifieds and a link exchange.
