What is a site map and why do you need it? (Exclusive Tutorial)

What is a site map and why do you need it?

A site map is a complete catalogue of all sections of your site, with short descriptions of every section. It should be easy to use for making quick searches to find needed information and for moving through your site's links. It should be a complete map of your site, if such is possible.

Site maps are necessary for your website to obtain a high position in search systems, because search systems highly rate sites which have a site navigation map.

A site map should contain the following:

• A short annotation to the site, in which fundamental keywords will be used in text links to main pages of your site (again, saturated with keywords) standard navigation panel, where all other links to all pages in the site will be located.
• A well-conceived site map should lead to all site nodes. In this way you will get higher priority in when searching the system.

Fundamental Advice on the Creation of Site Maps

- A site map should correspond with the design of the site. Departing from the common conception a site map, as from any other similar document, does not give your site its full measure of attractiveness, and even to the contrary can unnecessarily frighten away users.

- The use of graphics elements during the creation of a site map is not desirable. Lately most users surf the Web by sites in the Internet in the mode which excludes graphics images. For this reason the presence of graphics as navigation elements in your site map will not be considered very helpful, as they will not function for all users, and the map will be merely a rudimentary representation of your creation. Ideally, therefore, a site map should look the same in all web browsers, for all website visitors.

- The map's structure should correlate to the hierarchy of the site itself. For the structure of a site map it is desirable to use headers and lists. The use of tables makes this process much more difficult.

- It is desirable to place the link to your site map on the main or first page of your website and to make it in such a way that the user could, if necessary, quite easily use it. The user should not stop for one second to think about what he should do, when he doesn't know what to do further after landing on your website.