A sitemap is a webpage that shows all the pages on a website, making it easier for users to navigate. It can also help with search engine optimization and should be updated regularly.
A site map, or site index, is a web page that shows all the different pages that the site has. If the site is huge, the sitemap can provide general guidance, not for every page, but for pages under certain topic headings. Many homepages for websites have a link to the page’s sitemap. When you look at the map, you’ll see a series of links that let you know where to find each type of page.
The site index should not be processed. For example, if you have a blog about music, with many entries, you might have several pages with indexes. A simple list might look like this:
Home Page
About this site
How to contact us
Post a comment
Contemporary music
Folk music
Classic music
Each of these lists is linked to its own pages. Your sitemap listing on Contemporary Music could then lead to an index page on all topics in this topic. It can be extremely useful to have a sitemap when you have many pages, as it makes it easier for people to navigate around your site. You can use the map to search not only for the topics you want to find, but also to jump from different pages on a site. Many sitemaps also contain a search function, which can be accessed from the sitemap or home page to allow people to search for key terms.
While the search feature is great, the sitemap can be even better, especially since people often like to be guided by their interests when browsing websites. If you have 100 articles on contemporary music and all of these titles are listed, a person may be guided by their interest in viewing many pages on your website. If your site makes money from ad clicks, letting people know how to find what they want or enticing them with lots of material can be more profitable.
If your material is constantly changing, such as with a blog, updating the map can prove useful for webcrawlers who determine your profile based in part on what’s on your site. If you use Google® Ads, they strongly recommend that you create a sitemap so that webcrawlers can easily find everything on your site. Use titles for each section that are keywords to raise your profile.
This can be especially important when you’re first starting a site, since you won’t have many links to determine your profile. While blogging, be sure to keep your sitemap up-to-date and registered with Google®, so your website’s searchability and visibility will increase.
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