A sitemap of a website is similar to the table of contents
of a book. Sitemaps are important because it guides 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 look at if somebody
is looking for a particular keyword or phrase. If you have
a site map, you can most likely be searched.
Creating a sitemap, now with software technology surging
in, is relatively easier than before. You need not be a programming
guru to be one. All need is a notepad, a program editor,
and some patience. Here’s how you do it:
Create the listing on a notepad.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be a notepad. Any word
processing program will do. First off, make sure to type
in all the parts and pieces of your website. Include all
pages and all links you have. Create it as if you listing
the contents of your book. Make a draft first. You’re
sure no to miss something out this way.
Create a new page for your sitemap.
You can insert the sitemap on your website on one of its
pages or you can create an entirely different page for it.
Using your notepad, incorporate all tags necessary to it
to make another webpage. Open up your website creator program
and tag your sitemap using it. If you have created 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 won’t
put a link for it, of course. 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, be sure to fix it accurately. Run
through every single 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. Error
should be minimal at this stage since you already have verified
it locally.
The steps provided herewith is the manual way of creating
a sitemap. These days, if you search hard enough on the web,
you will find online programs that will do all these work
for you. All you have to do it type in the URL or the link
of your website and they will create the sitemap with click
of a button.
Of course 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 that possibility that something
else will be inserted in there too. Then again, the process
is less taxing and way, way simpler.
But if you want a more personalized output, and you are
pretty good with computers and programming yourself, better
make one of your own. And since you made your website anyway,
creating sitemap is just like creating any other page on
the website. Other than you’ll know for sure the links
are accurate, you can organize the links the way you prefer
it to be. Major parts of the site are emphasized compared
to less significant. This is important especially if you
are selling products or offering services online.
Sitemap is vital to a website. People search the web a lot
for something. If your website has what that particular person
is looking for, and your sitemap reports it, then you have
a new customer looking at your items. Not only that, they
will see some other things up for sale that they might be
interested in as well.
Sitemaps, be it generated by a program automatically or
you made it yourself, presents the same purpose. 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 with these, make sure your website has a sitemap
of its own, lest make one.
Jeremiah Patton has been currently using sitemaps for easy
navigation for visitors and for better crawling from search
engines. Jeremiah Patton uses a sitemap for his work at home
moms website http://www.2ndincome4u.com with
great success.
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