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WHAT IS A SITEMAP?

WHAT IS A SITEMAP?

Simply, a sitemap is a file that lists all the web pages of your website that you would like search engines to know about and consider for ranking. There are however two types of sitemaps; the sitemap for crawlers/bots and the visual sitemap for users. Each is intended for different usage and for different applications.




Why you need a sitemap...

Sitemaps are not required for your website to be found by search engines but are HIGHLY encouraged for all websites. A sitemap allows the crawlers of your site to get to all areas of your website no matter the size, with more efficiency. This helps with Search Engine Optimization because it makes it easier for search engines to find all the content you want to be discovered and ranked on your website. Sitemaps are especially important for new websites, very large (lots of pages) sites, or sites with large archives.

For new websites, there are very few external links coming into your site, so crawlers may have a hard time finding all of the pages on your site.

For large sites, crawlers may overlook some pages that have recently been updated if they do not have the metadata to tell them the page has been updated.

For archival sites, where content does not naturally link to one another it can be very difficult for crawlers to find all your pages without the sitemap as their guide.

Visual Sitemaps

Hand drawing a visual sitemap

A visual sitemap is a page that you can include in your site that allows visitors to see the layout of your pages and posts in one location, and is easily understood by people. Some of these sitemaps include all pages, but you can limit it to just your top-level pages. Excerpts from each page can also be included in the visual sitemap, giving your visitors an idea of the content contained on each of the pages.

Although not targeted at crawlers and bots, visual sitemaps do have the added bonus of added internal page linking to each of your most valuable pages, making it easier for spiders and crawlers to see associations with your content.

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