What are the benefits of having a sitemap for my website?
1. No page would be left unturned
Returning to the aim of sitemaps, having one would mean faster and easier tracking and crawling of spiders all over your site. As a consequence, search engines would certainly get to the view all the pages of your site and not merely the pages containing random keywords.
2. Easier navigation for site visitors
Once a web user has accessed your sitemap, they need not return to the search engine page to search for what they need. If what they are searching for is in your site, then they would have an easier and faster method of locating it.
3. Potential advertising value
If it so happens that a relevant product or service company arrives at your site, then it would be easier for them to see how best they can position themselves in the different pages of your site as a paid page advertisement.
4. Encourage greater traffic to your site
If your company website has a sitemap then potential buyers would have an easier time in accessing your latest products and services. Furthermore, they would not miss out on any product that might be off future interest to them because the sitemap would exhibit all information found on the site.
How are sitemaps formatted?
There are at least three major types of sitemaps: indexed, full categorical, and restricted categorical. An indexed site map appears as an alphabetical listing or directory. A full categorical map shows all links classified into categories; whilst a restricted categorical sitemap displays all links listed in a selected category at a time. The full and restricted sitemaps are very alike except that the former reveals all links in all categories all at once in a page, while the latter focuses only on the links under the selected category for easier and less eye-straining viewing.
The most widely employed format is the full categorical. Based on the results of a 1999 SURL study on sitemap designs, the full categorical format is the most favoured by users since it is easier to search for topics within the site and it allows for easier comparison between and amongst categories.
This concludes part 2 of this series, part three will deal with designing a sitemap.
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