Internet Marketing Hints And Tips » sitemap

Sitemaps 101 (Part 3 0f 3)

Gary Knox — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 10:51:42 +0000

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.

Sitemaps 101 (Part 2 of 3)

Gary Knox — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 11:11:41 +0000

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.

As always feel free to comment or even subscribe to the feed.

Sitemaps 101 (part 1 of 3)

Gary Knox — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 12:19:52 +0000

Have you ever wondered how a search engine works? It must be fascinating working out how these search tools could direct you to numerous websites that are relevant to your keywords. Or, have you experienced instances where the link that supposedly contains your keywords is not exactly what you have in mind? You would probably think that there must be something wrong with the search engine that it returned irrelevant results.

How does a search engine work?

There are two things that figure greatly in making search engines work effectively and efficiently: the electronic search spider and the sitemap.

What is a sitemap?

A sitemap is fundamentally a page or pages that functions as a directory by listing all the links to all documents and files found in a website. It is not simply a random listing of links, but organised in such a way that it affords the web user an idea of how all the information that can be found in the site fits into an outline or framework. It is like seeing the table of contents of a book, or viewing the “concept map” of the site’s content.

What is a spider?

In SEO language, a spider is not an animal found in your closet. These electronic search spiders are actually bots which gather data and copies content to be stored in the search engine’s database which can be recalled when keywords are fed into the search dialogue box. The spider reads the content of the site and sends another bot to follow the links and copy the content held in them.

What function does a sitemap serve?

A sitemap like any other map gives directions to a navigator. It principally targets search engine spiders so that they are properly guided to your site and to the links where keywords inserted in the search dialogue appears. Intrinsically, it is in reality a useful tool in search engine optimization. A well organized site map would guide the spider to find the data it needs when keywords are entered during a search operation.

As an additional beneficial consequence, sitemaps have proven to be of value even to web users. Because a sitemap displays all the links to information found in a website, it aids the user to search for a specific topic in mind. Several users likewise use the sitemap to navigate between pages in a site.

Part 2 of this series will deal with the benefit os having a sitemap and the final part will deal with some tips on how to design a site map.

How to create a sitemap

Gary Knox — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:35:19 +0000

A sitemap of a website is equivalent to the table of contents of a book. Sitemaps are significant because it directs web surfers to the particular part of the website they have a point of interest in. With it they would save time following links and get right to the point instead.

Sitemaps are also where search engines view if someone is searching for a particular keyword or phrase. If you have a sitemap, you can most probably be searched.

Creating a sitemap, now with modern software technology, is comparatively easier than it used to be. You need not be a programming guru to be able to design one. All that is required is a notepad, a program editor, and some patience. Here’s how you do it:

Produce the listing on a notepad.

It does not necessarily have to be a notepad. Any word processing program will do. Firstly, make certain to type in all the parts and pieces of your website. Include all pages and all links you have. Create it as though you are listing the contents of your book. Create a draft first. You’re sure not to miss something out this way.

Create a new page for your sitemap.

You can enter the sitemap on your website on one of its pages or you can produce an completely different page for it. Using your notepad, incorporate all tags necessary to make it another webpage. Open up your website creator program and tag your sitemap using it. If you have produced your website on your own, this will be easy for you.

Create a link for the sitemap.

You won’t be able to view the sitemap if you don’t assign a link for it, naturally. Create the link on the front page of your website so that visitors can view it right away and be directed appropriately.

Check your work.

It is important to validate the functionality of the links you created on the sitemap. Test each and every one in there and if you get an error, make sure to fix it precisely. Go through every individual page to make sure that all are accounted for.

Upload your work.

Place the sitemap now on your live browser and double check it. It should function as smoothly as the dry run. Errors should be minimal at this stage because you have already verified it locally.

The steps provided above is, of course, the manual means of creating a sitemap. These days, if you search the web, you will find numerous online programs that will do all this work for you. All you have to do it type in the URL or the link of your website and they will produce the sitemap with click of a button.

Naturally that method is generic. All of you who have created their sitemap that way will have an end product that is all the same, plus there’s the possibility that something else will be inserted in there too. On the other hand, the process is less burdensome and way, way simpler.

But if you require a more personalised output, and you are pretty adept with computers and programming yourself, better create one of your own. And since you made your website anyway, producing a sitemap is just like creating any other page on the website. Other than you will know for sure that the links are accurate, you are able to organise the links the way you would like it to be. Major parts of the site are accentuated compared to less significant. This is important particularly if you are selling products or offering services online.

A sitemap is vital to a website. People search the web a lot for information. If your website has what a particular person is looking for, and your sitemap reports it, then you have potentially a new customer looking at your items. Not just that, they may well see some other things up for sale or offer that they might be interested in.

Sitemaps, be it generated by a program automatically or you made it yourself, provide the same function. That is to lead your visitors to where they’re likely headed, and for you to be seen on the World Wide Web through search spiders.

So armed with the above information and that of my previous post concening The Importance Of A Sitemap When Designing A Website make sure your website has a sitemap of its own.

The Importance Of A Sitemap When Designing A Website

Gary Knox — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:28:30 +0000

A sitemap is often considered by some web designers as redundant in the process of building a website, and that is indeed the case if you make a sitemap simply for the sake of having one on your site.

By highlighting the importance of having a well constructed sitemap, you will be able to tailor your own sitemap to suit your own needs.

1) Navigation purposes

A sitemap literally represents a map of your site. If your visitors browses your site and gets confused by the thousands of pages on your site, they can always refer to your sitemap to see wherever they are, and navigate through your pages with the utmost ease.

2) Communicating your site’s theme

When your visitors load your sitemap, they’ll get the gist of your site within a very short amount of time. There is no need to acquire the “big picture” of your site by browsing through every page, and by doing that you will be saving your visitors’ time.

3) Site optimization purposes

When you create a sitemap, you are in reality producing a single page which contains links to every individual page on your site. Imagine what happens when a search engine robot hits this page — they will follow every link on your sitemap and naturally every single page of your site gets indexed by the search engine! It is also for this purpose that a link to the sitemap has to be placed conspicuously on the front page of your website.

4) Organization and relevance

A sitemap enables you to have a complete bird’s eye view of your site structure, and whenever you want to add new content or new sections, you will be able to take the existing hierarchy into consideration just by glancing at the sitemap. As a result, you’ll have a perfectly organized site with everything grouped according to their relevance.

As can be seen from the above points, it is most important to implement a sitemap for all website projects with a considerable size. By using a sitemap and the above points when designing your sitemap, you will be able to keep your website easily accesible and neatly organized for everyone. Thus hopefully ensuring that your visitors will return to your site frequently.