Sitemap Basics – How A Sitemap Can Help Your Website

If you’ve heard about sitemaps, and wonder how a sitemap can help your website; here is a brief explanation of what they are and how they benefit you.

A sitemap is a group of pages that function as a directory.  It lists all of the links, to all of the files and documents, that are found in a website.

Sitemaps are organized so web users have an idea of how information on the website fits into a basic outline.  Sitemaps can better be described like the table of contents in a book, or like viewing the map of your website’s content.

Like any other map used by a navigator, a sitemap directs the navigator.

A sitemap can help your website, because it targets the search engine spiders, and directs them to your website, and to the links where your keywords for the search engine dialogue appears.

Because a well organized sitemap makes it easier for the search engine spiders to find the information they need, to match up the keywords entered into the search engine search box; they are a useful tool for search engine optimization.

Sitemaps are not exclusively used just for the search engines.  Many web users find them useful for navigation between pages in a website.

Remember that like the table of contents in a book, the sitemap provides the user links to all the information found in the website, and helps them search for a particular topic.

Here’s how a sitemap can help your website and benefit your business.

• Faster Spider Crawling

A sitemap allows a search engine spider to crawl your website easier and faster.  The search engines get to look at all the pages on your website, and not just the keyword loaded pages.

• Easier Navigation

After a web user has access to your sitemap, they can find what they need without going back to the search engine and looking it up.

With a sitemap, users have a faster, easier way of locating the information they are looking for on your website, provided you have it available for them there.

• Increased Traffic To Your Website

When your company website has a sitemap; potential customers can access your products and services much faster and easier.

Because the sitemap displays all the information found on your website, you can be assured that they will not miss out on any product that might be of interest to them.

• Advertising

If a vendor who happens to have a relevant product or service visits your site; it would be much easier for them to determine how they could insert paid page advertisements in different areas of your website, if a sitemap were available.

The potential advertising value of a sitemap should never be underestimated.

Now that you have the basics about sitemaps, and know how a sitemap can help your website, why not go ahead and build one?