It is a given fact, that the look and appearance of the website are what attract the people the most. But what goes unnoticed is the behind-the-scenes preparations which make the website appealing. Known as the blueprint of the website, a sitemap which is often ignored by people is ironically something that will define the appeal of your website. Sitemaps are something that says ‘old is gold as they help your websites get noticed by Google and search engines. This article is a small ode to sitemap telling them that we haven’t forgotten our roots. Here we will take you through the basics of sitemaps and tips for creating smart sitemaps
What is a sitemap
It is a file that enlightens about pictures, media, images, videos, and other files on your website. A sitemap gives your website a structure. Basically, it guides the user with the flow of the website and helps them with their next move. As per studies, a sitemap should contain a maximum of 50,000 URLs and should be not be more than 50 MB. There are two main types of sitemaps formats HTML and XML. Further, their subcategories are:
• Page Sitemap
• News Sitemap
• Image Sitemap
• Sitemap Index
HTML sitemaps: Commonly known as ‘website archive’, HTML sitemaps are used by users to scroll through your websites. Some might say this format is outdated but they are easy to understand. It contains a list of URLs that describe your website. These give the users easier and better access to the website
XML sitemap: Like how HTML sitemaps are for humans, XMLs are essentially for search engines. They help search engines and spiders discover your page. To get noticed, XMLs provide data and a complete map. These are predominantly used for large websites
Why is the sitemap of your website important?
• Helps in search identity when new pages and updates to old pages are available
• Provides a roadmap for Google and other search engines to understand your page
• Acts as an organizer for large websites.
• Brings in traffic and crawlers
• Acts as an effective planning tool that makes content organization easy.
• Works hard to find alternative language versions of your page.
1. Plan in advance
A stick in time saves nine. It goes without saying that your website design and creating a sitemap should go hand in hand. The sooner you start it, the better it is for your project. Take extra care while designing your sitemap, as it will help make the website free-flowing. Jot down everything thing that comes to mind, take regular team meetings and brainstorm ideas.
2. Build a purpose
Defining the purpose of the website makes it easy to create the sitemap. All these things go hand in hand. Once your purpose is defined carry on with the following tips
• Research is the key. Understand your customers and market.
• Use SEO-rich titles to get noticed
• URLs shouldn’t be more than 50,000.
3. Categorize your content
Categorizing your content will probably be easier once the website structure is defined. Take an idea of how the flow of the website will be. Gather your team to identify your primary pages- about page, contact page, home page, blog page etc. Before you begin with the next step you should have a tree structure of how your sitemap will represent your website,
4. Alternative method
By now if you feel like creating a sitemap is getting tedious you can opt for using a sitemap generating software. This makes the process easy, saves time, and gives valuable insights. Following are the top sitemap-generating software
• Dynomapper 50,000.
• Slickplan
• Mindnode
• Writemaps
• DSL Speed Sitemaps Generator
5. Home sweet home
Search engines traverse through your homepage to put you on the map and get visibility. Putting your sitemap here on the homepage is a great idea. This should be your starting point. Make sure that there are no missing links.
6. Get coding
Each page is important as it will attract users as per their preferences. Once that is structured. Let’s get coding the URLs. If you have any knowledge of XML or HTML, you can easily design it on your own. Or else you can use the sitemap generator software.
7. Validate the code
We are human after all and we do make mistakes. Regularly scanning the process or code for mistakes bridges the broken links. The sitemap must function flawlessly for the search engine to track it. Hence there is no room for error. This also includes thoroughly testing the sitemap before making it public. Lastly, you will have to add the website to the root folder once all the boxes are ticked.
Read more: https://steelkiwi.com/blog/tips-developing-intelligent-sitemap/
In Conclusion
An organization has to do whatever it takes to get its website great traffic. Of course, there are several parameters to take into consideration but creating a smart sitemap is almost like half the battle won as it sets a flawless foundation. So, pull up your socks and get working on the sitemaps. Rather let us ease your pressure. Give us a chance to help you out with the sitemaps. To know more contact our experts at https://www.app-scoop.com/contact-us.html