How Important is a Sitemap?
There are 2 reasons for having a sitemap:
- To help your visitors find the right content so that
they end up as clients
- To help search engines index your site correctly
Most visitors, most of the time, will use the standard navigation
buttons on your site to find what they want. A sitemap gives
an alternative path in case they don't find your navigation
structure as easy as you had hoped. Clearly the more complex
the site, particularly one using dynamic pages, the more valuable
such an alternative is likely to be.
Search Engines index your site by following links. The
better constructed your site and the simpler it is, the fewer the
problems in accuracy. Again a sitemap provides an alternative
path that is useful to overcome any problems of reaching a given
page. It is also an opportunity for the webmaster to use
relevant keywords in the links to reinforce the rankings on those
words.
At Sitemap.org, you can find a protocol now approved by the 4
major search engines: Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask. One XML file
lists URLs for a site along with additional metadata about each URL
(when it was last updated, how often it usually changes, and how
important it is, relative to other URLs in the site) so that search
engines can more intelligently crawl the site.
The search engines see this agreed standard as an important and
valuable service to webmasters.
Google's
Webmaster Central and Yahoo's
Site Explorer, are two programs that provide tools to help a
webmaster influence the way a site is indexed by a search engine.
However there is key design work required to get the best value
out of it. First, the data format required by the search
engines (XML) is not directly readable by humans. Second, it
has to be kept up to date. Ideally the initial web
design would include an automated system to cope with updates: but,
unless this was part of the initial design brief, most
websites will not be so well planned.
In case of a conflict between information in the sitemap and the
site itself, the search engine spider will make its own decision on
which to follow. A mistake in indexing can be difficult to
correct.
To check on the correct use of a sitemap on your site:
- Look at the sitemap page on the site and see if it
really adds value for visitors
- Check in Google Webmaster Central (you have signed up
for that, haven't you?) to see what they have indexed and
any problems found.
In case of problems, talk to your webmaster. Then solve the
issue not just for the immediate cause but also for all future
updates.
Talk to you next month
Stephen Orr
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