While website designing was once left in the hands of the “tech” professionals, more and more website owners are now trying to learn about the processes. They are trying to learn about the different steps and stages critical to running a successful platform. And one of the most fundamental tasks would be to know what a ‘sitemap’ is. So, we have our Central Coast Website expert here to explain it in depth.
What is a Sitemap | Central Coast Website
To explain it in general, a sitemap is a file. And it provides you information about the pages, videos and other files in your site, and the relationships between them. That is, a sitemap tells Google which pages and files you think are important within your site.
A sitemap can be used to describe two things:
- An HTML or visual sitemap
- An XML sitemap
Both are integral within the website designing process and cannot be substituted.
What is HTML or Visual Sitemap | Central Coast Website
An HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) sitemap is a simple two-dimensional webpage that lists the pages and flows on your website. It is a text and visual representation, and is named so because of the history of creating HTML versions to add on to different sites as own pages.
Nowadays, most users rely more on menus to navigate than on sitemaps on the footer menu. If you really have a great UX design, you don’t really need a map to find content.
Transitioning from HTML to Visual
In fact, internal teams have a more nuanced version of the HTML sitemap, the visual format, which is used for content strategy. It helps them to see all the pages and posts altogether, including hidden content.
Such a sitemap may also have spreadsheets or lists of pages. It could contain short descriptions, links, notes on the responsibility of the web designers and developers. This helps in establishing a clear plan and communication for better collaboration with clients. Every Central Coast website expert uses an HTML sitemap to strategise, create content relationships, and create hierarchy of content between different audience levels.
How to Create an HTML Sitemap?
Creating an HTML sitemap in a Central Coast website is not complicated; the tools you need depend on the type of sitemap you want to create. For a text-based platform, you can use Google Docs or Sheets. First, crawl your site to get a complete list of your URLs. Then, you would need to sort them. You can also use free or paid web crawlers depending on the number of URLs you might have. As for visual sites, you can use user-friendly tools that reflect your most commonly built and designed content in WordPress.
What is XML Sitemap? | Central Coast Website
The XML is a file containing all the posts, pages, and media along with taxonomies in a format that can be read by search engines. So, search engines like Google can efficiently crawl through your site, understand and discover your content, while gauging its importance against other content.
Search engines use both external and internal links. Without a sitemap, you might have to depend on bots to increase your content’s exposure.
How to Create an XML sitemap?
If you use the Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress, your XML sitemap might be automatically generated. The plugin updates the site as you add, remove or edit content. Besides Yoast, there are other plugins that you can use (or in case your site isn’t on WordPress).
Another thing about an XML sitemap is that you might already have it but not know it. It usually has an URL that ends with /sitemap.xml.
Using Sitemaps for SEO
Sitemaps can ensure a strong user experience, and can help demonstrate the freshness of your content for better rankings. It’s an important strategic planning tool and can help search engines efficiently crawl your Central Coast websites.
Creating sitemaps can be easy, but if you’re not sure, you can always contact our experts at the Website Guy. Contact us today for more information.
