How and why you should create a sitemap, for your website
- 1. Sitemaps
- 2. What is a sitemap & why it is important • In the most layman terms Sitemap is quite literally a MAP (or a blueprint if you wish) of all the pages on your WEBSITE • There are a number of different types of sitemaps you will encounter in web development, and we will go through each type in detail. • As a general overview, sitemaps aremade up of all the individual URLs (pages) that live under your site’s domain and helps visitors, but more importantly Google, understand and navigate your website quickly. • Through a well constructed sitemap you can make sure none of your key pages get missed out. If Google has a clear guide to all your individual pages it will crawl your site more effectively.
- 3. Learn by example… case study • To help you better understand the concept and application of sitemaps we will use example from one of our most successful SEO projects. • JBR Capital is a luxury car finance provider • Behind the site is 1000s+ unique pages from targeted PPC to keyword rich marque and model pages • See jbrcapital.com
- 4. Sitemap as a web dev tool
- 5. Build a sitemap before you build a website • The first instance you will probably come across sitemaps in web development is in the very initial stages of website design and development. • Let’s call this type the flowchart sitemap – this will become clear on the next page. • Drawing a well thought-out site map before you begin designing or building your new website allows you to clearly structure it, get a solid overall idea of the website’s scope and the pages you will need to build. • It is much less complex than the sitemap you will create once the website is build, it does not need to be as detailed, and serves as a guide for your web designer and web developer. • On the next page we will look at an example of this type of sitemap.
- 6. Let’s learn by example… flowchart sitemaps • Here is our first example – a basic flow chart sitemap created to help in the website development process. • While later you will see how complex and large the XML and HTML sitemap of this website is, for now take a look at how the flowchart sitemap might have looked before the website was even build.
- 7. Sitemap for better UX
- 8. Build a sitemap for the human user • The second type of sitemap comes into play once your website, and all your pages are build and live. • We are talking about a HTML sitemap. • It is a lists and links directly to of all the pages which a on that website, logically ordered and clearly displayed for a human user to read, use as reference for your site or to help them navigate it. • This is especially useful for large or complex website as it can significantly improve the user experience, which is in turn rewarded by google. • But of course you do not need to manually write and link all your pages, there is many tools and plug ins available to automatically generate and keep your html sitemap up to date.
- 9. Let’s learn by example… HTML sitemaps • Let’s have a look at JBR Capital’s HTML sitemap. • As you can see it has now become much more complex than the flowchart one, as it represents all of the actual indexed pages, instead of just structure concept • See full sitemap at jbrcapital.com/sitemap/
- 10. HTML sitemaps do’s and don’t • Do use a dynamic sitemap if you can, either through plug in or custom script, to keep your sitemap up to date • Do link to your sitemap in the footer, it will make it easy for the user to find. • Don’t generate a static sitemap for large/often updated website, it will become outdated very quickly. • Don’t include noindex and hidden pages
- 11. Sitemap for SEO
- 12. Build a sitemap for Google • The third and final type of sitemap we will talk about is the one you submit to google. • The XML sitemap • It is similar to a HTML sitemap, but instead for human user it is created for google/robots to read and understand your website. • It often includes further details (meta data) such as frequency of updates, date of last update, page importance. • Through submitting this sitemap to google you can help in the process of indexing your site, as well as clearly show which pages on your site are the most important.
- 13. Let’s learn by example… XML sitemaps • Let’s have a look at JBR Capital’s XML sitemap. • Building upon complexity yet again you can clearly see the level of detail required for an XML sitemap • In JBR’s example we are even using multiple XML sitemaps • See full sitemap at jbrcapital.com/sitemap_index.xml
- 14. XML sitemaps do’s and don’t • Do use a good 3rd party XML sitemap generator such as Yoast SEO for Wordpress • Do check and validate your sitemap through google search console • Do submit your validated XML sitemap to Google • Don’t use a static sitemap generator • Don’t include noindex, hidden, utility, canonicalised, paginated or duplicate pages • Do use the sitemap to see how the site is structured
- 15. Key site structure Top Level Pages Classic Car Finance - https://jbrcapital.com/classic-car-finance/ Prestige Car Finance - https://jbrcapital.com/prestige-car-finance/ Supercar - https://jbrcapital.com/supercar-finance/ Sports Car - https://jbrcapital.com/sports-car-finance/ Top Marques McLaren - https://jbrcapital.com/mclaren-finance/ Lamborghini - https://jbrcapital.com/lamborghini-finance/ Farrari - https://jbrcapital.com/ferrari-finance/ Aston Martin - https://jbrcapital.com/aston-martin-finance/ Bugatti - https://jbrcapital.com/bugatti-finance/ Jaguar - https://jbrcapital.com/jaguar-finance/ Koenigsegg - https://jbrcapital.com/koenigsegg-finance/ Lotus - https://jbrcapital.com/lotus-finance/ Mercedes Benz - https://jbrcapital.com/mercedes-benz-finance/ Pagani - https://jbrcapital.com/pagani-finance/ Porsche - https://jbrcapital.com/porsche-finance/ Alfa Romeo - https://jbrcapital.com/alfa-romeo-finance/ Audi - https://jbrcapital.com/audi-finance/ Bentley - https://jbrcapital.com/bentley-finance/ BMW - https://jbrcapital.com/bmw-finance/ Ford - https://jbrcapital.com/ford-finance/ Range Rover - https://jbrcapital.com/range-rover-finance/ Maserati - https://jbrcapital.com/maserati-finance/ Nissan - https://jbrcapital.com/nissan-finance/ Rolls Royce - https://jbrcapital.com/rolls-royce-finance/ Tesla - https://jbrcapital.com/tesla-finance/
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