A few tips for setting up your sitemap
1. Link the sitemap to your homepage only.
This is to guarantee that the spider starts searching from your homepage down to all the pages listed in your sitemap. In this way, no page would be left unvisited by the spider.
2. Do not go beyond thirty pages for a sitemap.
Large websites having fifty or more pages should not go beyond thirty because this adds more pages to the site, and could make search engines think that the sitemap is a link farm. Besides, this prevents overcrowding of links which could be tiring to view.
3. Check all the links listed in your sitemap.
It can be discouraging when you click on a link only to discover that nothing is exhibited. Test your sitemap; click all links in every page to make certain that all links are indeed linked to the right page.
4. Give keyword-rich titles to sitemap links.
Keyword-rich titles give your site more advantage in being searched properly under the right category. But make certain to have this sitemap link linked back to the sitemap (e.g. back to sitemap).
5. Furnish a brief description for the links in the sitemap.
Doing so would yield readers a clearer idea of what to find in the link and save them time on surfing.
6. Be uniform in designing your sitemap with the other pages of the site.
Utilise a recurring design and the same HTML template for all pages to establish identity and build character to your website.
Now that this three part series is complete and you have learned the basic things about sitemaps, maybe it is time for you to build one for your site.
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