Having a sitemap is not crucial for every single website on the World Wide Web. In general though, it is a good idea to have one. Many of the smaller websites do not really need an SEO sitemap. All they have to do is make sure that every one of the web pages is linked. Linking the pages into the main navigation will do the trick.

Why site maps are a good idea

The important thing to remember is that your site visitors and the search engine crawlers access your website and site map in different ways. Site maps have a two-folded purpose. It gives easy access for the web crawlers. It also makes it easy for your visitors to access all the different pages on your website. What must happen though is that different ways must be used to create site maps. This is to ensure that they are friendly to your human visitors as well as the search engines.

Human visitors

The SEO sitemap for your web traffic is like all other web pages and normally is included in the global footer or in the main navigation. The main thing is for visitors to be able to find and use the link to your sitemap without looking all over. The heading and layout must give the visitor a clear chain of command through your website. An overview should be a short paragraph that comes at the top of your sitemap and be a friendly way to introduce a visitor to your site.

This is especially helpful if they came to your site via a search engine. Do not clutter your sitemap with graphics; it is a huge distraction for visitors. Try to keep only to text for descriptions and links.

If possible also include a very short description of where the visitor will go by following each link. Remember to make sure that all the pages within your website is links to the site map. Lastly, it is very important to keep your site map up to date at all times, especially when you remove or add any pages to your website.

Search engine spiders

Site maps for the search engine spiders mean something different to what you must do for your human visitors. With this is meant the .xml file and the robots.txt file. The .xml file must be embedded in your website’s root directly and contain all the links to the web pages within your website. To make your site map accessible to the search engine crawlers, you must have the .xml file in place.

Once that is in place, the site map must be referenced in the robots.txt file. This is done by adding a line for the site map. Now the search engine spiders can access your website. Your site map for the web crawlers must be kept updated as you keep your site map updated for your human visitors. A fully functional site map is the key to give your visitors and the search engine spiders the best possible access to your website.

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