Sitemaps are without doubt one of the most often ignored and undervalued aspects of search engine optimization. You’ve probably spent a huge amount of time working on pages of original content, keyword density and getting incoming links but never once spared a thought for a sitemap for your new creation.

What is a sitemap?

Put simply it’s a page or pages that contain a list of and link to all the other documents on your site. This is useful on two levels:

1. Your visitor can quickly reference all the documents on your site to find exactly what they’re looking for.

2. Search engine spiders can also quickly find and index every single page of your site in the least amount of time. The SEO benefits of using a sitemap far considerable and should not be ignored.

This is a win-win situation for you, your website visitors and the search engines. Put simply you’re nuts if you’ve not included a sitemap as part of your overall website promotion strategy.

The good news is that it’s never too late to start. You can create a sitemap page today but there are some rules to creating an effective sitemap that you need to follow:

Your sitemap must only be linked to from your homepage and no other page. Why? You want the search engine spiders to find this link directly from your homepage and follow it from there. Your sitemap MUST NOT be linked to from every other page of your site. Also from a Google Pagerank point of view only linking to your sitemap from your homepage can also "funnel" PR quickly to pages all over your site.

If you have a large website of 50 pages or more limit the number of pages listed on your sitemap to a maximum of 30. This is to prevent your sitemap from being misinterpreted as a link farm by the search engines. It also makes the sitemap a lot easier for real human visitors to read through. Limiting the number of pages listed on each sitemap to 30 might mean splitting your sitemap over 5, 10 or 20 pages. This has to be done and the long term benefits are worth it. Bear in mind that if you do create a 20 page sitemap you’ve just created an extra 20 pages of content for your website!

Make absolutely sure that each of your sitemap pages links to the next. If you have 10 sitemap pages in total then each of those needs to link to every other sitemap page. Otherwise both visitors and search engine spiders will find a broken link, lose interest and go away.

Test your sitemap thoroughly. Make sure all the links works. Make sure it’s easy to read and navigate through. Your sitemap is there to assist your visitor and not confuse them.

How should you structure your sitemap? The following tips must be adhered to in order for your site to gain the maximum possible benefit from having a sitemap.

1. The title of each sitemap link should be keyword rich and link directly back to the original page.

2. Include 10 - 20 words of text from the original page of content underneath the relevant sitemap link. This creates more content for search engine spiders and human visitors can see exactly what each page is about in advance of clicking. uman visitor benefit is that they can see what the pages is about in advance.

3. Ensure that the look and feel of your sitemap page is consistent with the rest of your site. Use the same basic HTML template you used for every other page of your site.

So now you understand the importance of building a sitemap for your website. There is work involved but the long term benefits for your websites far outweigh any effort you have to make right now.

This article was provided courtesy of Search-Engine-Fuel.com where you’ll find tons of information on search engine optimization. Check out our page on SEO sitemaps.

What is the easiest and quickest way to get your site spidered and listed by Google and Yahoo?

This is an enternal question, one that many frustrated SEO specialists and online business owners are still trying to figure out. The trick to answering this question is to find out exactly what Google and Yahoo want you to do to get listed; not what you THINK they want you to do. That being said, the tried and true methods to get your pages indexed and listed by Google and Yahoo have been the following:

1. Blogging and Pinging

2. Submit your website through the standard submission form provided by Yahoo and Google

3. Pay a search engine submission service to do it for you

4. Figure out how to create a Sitemap for each of the engines to get the spiders to come to your site (you still have to manually submit)

These are all decent methods. However, the problems with 3 of these methods are many, and here are just a few:

1. Blog and Ping and submission forms are all slow ways to get listed. Who has that kind of time?

2. Search Engine Submission services can be expensive

3. Using an automated search engine submission service can get you banned, if the search engines think that you are "spamming"

Of all the methods listed above, both Google and Yahoo prefer that you create a sitemap and then submit your site to them. You create a database file that contains information about ALL of your web pages. You then load that file onto your website and then let Google know where that file is. Google is extremely specific about how the database should be submitted, which is in XML format.

By submitting your website in this way, you are cutting down on their overhead by a huge amount. You see, when you submit the old-fashioned way, using the standard submission form we talked about earlier, Google and Yahoo have to convert your information to the database XML format themselves. As you can imagine, this takes time, especially with the zillions of webpages that are submitted daily. So, those sites that are submitted in the manner and format that Google and Yahoo are already using will get their pages spidered faster…do you see the logic here? Using this process, you are enabling them to visit many MORE of your web pages quickly and easy. This is exactly what Google and Yahoo want you to do.

By submitting your sitemap in the preferred format, you will accomplish the following:

1. Save enormous amounts of your valuable time and money.

2. You don’t risk getting banned

3. You will get Google and Yahoo to spider the pages of your site faster.

So, if you want to get your site spidered, and therefore listed, faster, you must create and submit the sitemap. In theory, the search engines can list your pages whenever they want. In reality, until you get them to spider your webpages, you will never get them listed!

Joe Borges makes it easy to get your website quickly spidered and listed in all the major search engines. Learn how by visiting our Google Sitemap website. Joe Borges is an experienced Internet Marketer and Software Consultant with experience in website development and implementation. He is also a professional SEO Consultant, helping internet businesses increase their web presence, website traffic and Search Engine Ranking. Get tools and strategies that you can use right now to make your online business thrive by visiting:

http://www.tekretail.com/seo-software.html

Google has implemented a cutting edge method of crawling web site for its search engine index. This unprecedented method of indexing web pages is known as Google Sitemaps, and it is quickly growing in popularity among webmasters and SEO agents and managers due to its ability to get entire web site indexed quickly and to pick up errors in the links coming into and out of these web site.

Google Sitemaps consists of placing the URLs of your pages along with important information regarding how Google should index them into an XML document. This information is then read by the Google Spider and the pages are normally indexed quite quickly assuming that they are coherent to Google’s standards for indexing pages (and also assuming that the sitemaps conform to Googles Sitemap Criteria which will be explained a little later).

There are two primary types of Google Sitemaps. The first is a list of pages in a website and the second is a list of sitemaps in the website. Google has limited the number of URLs in its sitemaps to fifty thousand URLs. This may sound like a lot, but for some of the more intricate web site, fifty thousand URLs may not even make a dent in what they want indexed.

This led to the advent of the Google Sitemap index file which can index up to one thousand sitemaps. If you do the math, this means that you could have one thousand sitemaps with up to fifty thousand URLs in each sitemap which allows for fifty million URLs to be placed in your Google Sitemap scheme. But wait, there’s more. Who ever said that you can’t have an index of indexes? You could actually make an index of a thousand index files which are all indexes of a thousand index files. Basically, there is no limit to the number of URLs that you can hold in your Google sitemaps.

Now that you understand the power of the Google Sitemap you’re probably asking yourself how to create and implement a Google Sitemap. The first step is to simply create your sitemaps. Here are the templates which are also available at http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/

For a sitemap file use the following format:

<urlset xmlns=http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.84><br /></urlset>

With 40 million websites in existence, and more than 3 billion web pages indexed by Google at the time of this writing (July 2003), it’s no wonder that more and more people are relying on search engines to find their way through the unruly world that the web has become.

Nowadays, it is crucial to get your pages indexed by the most important search engines. To maximize traffic to your site, you must make sure that all your internal pages are indexed, not just your main page (homepage).

Fortunately, you don’t need to submit each of your pages manually. The most efficient way is to create a Site Map (a list of links to all the pages in your site) and link to it directly from your homepage.

How Will A Site Map Help Me?

Search engines find pages by “crawling” the web. They go through the code of all the pages in their database (also called index), following links to other pages and adding them to the database (in fact, more pages are added this way than by manual submission).

However, search engines have trouble following links from pages buried too deep within the directory structure of a site. A Site Map solves this problem by giving the engines access to the links to all your pages once they follow the Site Map link in your homepage. For more effectiveness, place your Site Map in your root directory (where your index page is).

Site Maps: Not Just for Search Engines

While some web users will find their way through your site by following navigation links or by using the search box, others will turn to your Site Map. If you design your Site Map carefully, it will not only be useful to the search engines, but to your human visitors as well.

Here are some pointers:

How can I check if my pages have been indexed?

Once you have created and uploaded your Site Map and placed a link to it in your homepage, submit both your homepage and your Site Map page to the search engines. You will then have to wait until the search engines do a web crawl. In the case of Google, the largest search engine, this happens approximately once a month.

To check if a page on your site has been picked-up and indexed by Google’s, go to www.google.com and use the “allinurl” command in the search box:

allinurl:yourdomain.com/yourpage.html

Where “yourdomain.com/yourpage.html” is the URL of the page you want to check.

To get a list of all the pages in your domain that have been indexed by Google, you’ll have to use the “site” command, followed by your domain name plus a word (or group of words) that you know appear in all your pages (for example, a copyright statement or some footer text):

site:yourdomain.com commonword

If after typing this command you get a list of all your pages (or at least a significant number of pages that weren’t in the index before), this will be a strong indication that your Site Map has been successful.

—–

You can freely reprint this article. Just include the following resource box at the end:

About The Author

Mario Sanchez publishes The Internet Digest ( http://www.theinternetdigest.net ), an online collection of web design and Internet marketing articles and resources. You can freely reprint his weekly articles in your website, ezine, newsletter or ebook.

Another important component of search engine optimization is the use of site maps. If you want visitors — and search engine spiders — to find every page on your Web site, a site map can be your biggest ally especially if you have a lot of content on your site (and if you’ve been reading all the advice on our site, you should know by now that the more content you have the better your chances are for top ranking).

So, what is a site map? Basically, it is a navigation tool. It lets visitors know what information you have, how it is organized, where it is located with respect to other information, and how to get to that information with the least amount of clicks possible. A good site map is more than a hyperlinked index, which only provides the user with a list of alphabetically arranged terms.

Site maps also provide lots of nutritious spider food for search engine robots that crawl your site and eventually index it. Once the robot gets to the site map, it can visit every page on your entire site because all the information is clearly indicated on that one page. However, in order for your site map to work most effectively, you must include a link to your site map in the navigation on every page of your site.

To make your site map most appealing to both the search engine robots and human visitors, be sure to include descriptive text along with the page URLs and links. Be sure to use your targeted keywords in that text. Remember not to be too repetitive with your keyword phrases, though, or you may be penalized.

When you make it easy for people to navigate your site, they will find what they are looking for and will most likely be a repeat visitor. Likewise, when your site is easily navigable by search engine spiders, you increase your chances of being favorably listed in their search results.

So, if creating a site map isn’t part of your current search engine optimization strategy, maybe it’s time you thought about adding this beneficial — and fairly simple — tool to your repertoire.

For an example of Submit Today’s site map, go to: http://www.submittoday.com/site_map.htm.

About The Author

As Submit Today’s copywriter and editor, Kristy Meghreblian has written online content for many successful companies, including Monster.com. She has successfully combined her excellence in journalism with the delicate art of keyword density as it relates to search engine optimization. As a result, she has helped many Submit Today clients achieve top ranking. Submit Today (http://www.SubmitToday.com) is a leading search engine optimization, submission and ranking company located in Naples, Florida.

kristy@submittoday.com

Sitemap taxonomy is a way to classify the tremendous amount of information available on the World Wide Web. Organizing web content is a lot of work that requires manpower and money. But creating sitemap taxonomy is a process that must be done in order to make information readily available to users.

Often times the information is there but users are unable to access it. With the sitemap taxonomy, web content is arranged in such a way that the user will be able to use it effectively. As it is more and more users are flooded with information that is useless to them thus creating frustration.

Impact of sitemap taxonomy to Internet marketing

Sitemap taxonomy can be a big boost to Internet marketing. The whole purpose of being on the web is to get exposure to a wider audience of potential customers. Unfortunately, the overflow of information often makes it impossible for searchers or browsers to find what they need.

Most of the time online users form searches that often turn up useless or non-relevant results. This is not only frustrating for users but also for any company advertised on the web. Users are left guessing the right keyword they need to use in order to get the information they need off the web.

Unfortunately not all users have the patience to keep guessing until they find the right keyword. More often than not, users will give up their search and go on with another search. This can mean lost sales for any company on the web that doesn’t have a sitemap taxonomy.

Building a sitemap taxonomy

Many people may think that building sitemap taxonomy is an easy simple process of putting together keywords. Sorry to say, sitemap taxonomy is a demanding task however it does have its rewards. With an effective sitemap taxonomy in place, a website is more likely to get more traffic that would translate into profits.

Working out a sitemap taxonomy is often a trial and error process. It requires using the right terms that users are better acquainted with, in order for them to find their way through the site. At the same time, using the wrong terms may make it impossible for users to find what they need within the site.

There are generally two sets of online users that should benefit from the sitemap taxonomy, browsers and searchers. Browsers often use the sitemap taxonomy to find their way within a site while searchers use online search engines to find the information they need. No matter what type of user is involved, the sitemap taxonomy should address the needs of both users. Enabling either user to find the content they need.

Do-it-yourself sitemap taxonomy

The best candidate for creating the sitemap taxonomy of a site is the company itself or the individual behind the website content. Although hiring a professional to create the sitemap taxonomy of the site is an option, it is best that someone with firsthand knowledge of the website’s content do it. There are a number of important aspects to consider before doing the sitemap taxonomy.

Keep in mind that in general the sitemap taxonomy should be extensive not profound. Putting together profound sitemap taxonomy may only make matters worse as the user will have a difficult time finding the subject matter they need. It is also best to use basic terms instead of advertising jargon that can be easily understood by all.

When structuring the sitemap taxonomy, it is important to maintain some exactness at the highest levels. This helps make it easier for users to navigate the site and find the information they need. It is also a good idea to limit the number of items under each level from two to seven subject matters. If not then it is best to combine subject matters for a more efficient sitemap taxonomy.

Take into account that sitemap taxonomy is not an exact science. It requires constant fine-tuning in order to produce an effective sitemap taxonomy. However the entire process will pay off big in the long run as users who are more likely to find what they need are those more likely to spend money.

Jeremiah Patton has been currently using sitemaps for easy navigation for visitors and for better crawling from search engines. Jeremiah Patton uses a sitemap for his work at home moms website http://www.2ndincome4u.com with great success.

A sitemap of a website is similar to the table of contents of a book. Sitemaps are important because it guides web surfers to the particular part of the website they have a point of interest in. With it they would save time following links and get right to the point instead.

Sitemaps are also where search engines look at if somebody is looking for a particular keyword or phrase. If you have a site map, you can most likely be searched.

Creating a sitemap, now with software technology surging in, is relatively easier than before. You need not be a programming guru to be one. All need is a notepad, a program editor, and some patience. Here’s how you do it:

Create the listing on a notepad.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be a notepad. Any word processing program will do. First off, make sure to type in all the parts and pieces of your website. Include all pages and all links you have. Create it as if you listing the contents of your book. Make a draft first. You’re sure no to miss something out this way.

Create a new page for your sitemap.

You can insert the sitemap on your website on one of its pages or you can create an entirely different page for it. Using your notepad, incorporate all tags necessary to it to make another webpage. Open up your website creator program and tag your sitemap using it. If you have created your website on your own, this will be easy for you.

Create a link for the sitemap.

You won’t be able to view the sitemap if you won’t put a link for it, of course. Create the link on the front page of your website so that visitors can view it right away and be directed appropriately.

Check your work.

It is important to validate the functionality of the links you created on the sitemap. Test each and every one in there and if you get an error, be sure to fix it accurately. Run through every single page to make sure that all are accounted for.

Upload your work.

Place the sitemap now on your live browser and double check it. It should function as smoothly as the dry run. Error should be minimal at this stage since you already have verified it locally.

The steps provided herewith is the manual way of creating a sitemap. These days, if you search hard enough on the web, you will find online programs that will do all these work for you. All you have to do it type in the URL or the link of your website and they will create the sitemap with click of a button.

Of course that method is generic. All of you who have created their sitemap that way will have an end product that is all the same, plus there’s that possibility that something else will be inserted in there too. Then again, the process is less taxing and way, way simpler.

But if you want a more personalized output, and you are pretty good with computers and programming yourself, better make one of your own. And since you made your website anyway, creating sitemap is just like creating any other page on the website. Other than you’ll know for sure the links are accurate, you can organize the links the way you prefer it to be. Major parts of the site are emphasized compared to less significant. This is important especially if you are selling products or offering services online.

Sitemap is vital to a website. People search the web a lot for something. If your website has what that particular person is looking for, and your sitemap reports it, then you have a new customer looking at your items. Not only that, they will see some other things up for sale that they might be interested in as well.

Sitemaps, be it generated by a program automatically or you made it yourself, presents the same purpose. That is to lead your visitors to where they’re likely headed, and for you to be seen on the World Wide Web through search spiders. So with these, make sure your website has a sitemap of its own, lest make one.

Jeremiah Patton has been currently using sitemaps for easy navigation for visitors and for better crawling from search engines. Jeremiah Patton uses a sitemap for his work at home moms website http://www.2ndincome4u.com with great success.

Ever wondered what site maps are for?

In any internet marketing endeavor, the best thing to do is to maintain a good linkage and to always stay indexed. There many ways available to you online to have your web site indexed and spidered. Using HTML site maps is a way you can utilize to make sure that your site is up to date in the internet and search engine database.

What is a site map?

A site map basically is a page that features or lists the links you have on your web site. This will make it easier for search engines to proceed and spider your web site. It is usually found near the bottom page of a web site.

Why are site maps important?

An HTML site map is important. It should contain the top level pages. In one page, there should be just about the right amount of links in it. The link should not exceed 100 for more favorable views.

There are certain benefits in having a good HTML sitemap. This generally would assure any potential customer to easily navigate the site, find exactly what they came to look for. The site map page will serve as a tool for your visitors. This way they will opt to visit your site more if they can easily browse and find their way in your web site. It can also ensure that your visitors can very well stay in your web site.

Good links will also ensure you that spiders will locate your web site easily each week. This will make your site indexed by the important search engines online. This will also avoid your site from being dropped.

However, HTML site maps may serve more important purpose than merely as another link to click on. The specific purpose you should consider in having a site map is to make it easier for search engine robots to ‘crawl’ in your web site. Pages are located by search engines through ‘crawling.’ It is a process that goes through the index of a page, following the links and adding the pages to the database.

The problem would come in when search engines fail to locate the page because links are not that accessible. It is the site map that will address this dilemma. Search engines will be given access to the different links in your web site simply by following the site map in your home page.

Here are some important pointers in creating your HTML site map.

1. Get tutorials on how to make your site map. There are available pages online that can give you a step-by-step guide in coming up with a good website.

2. You can also ensure that your site map looks good, to make it more pleasing to the eye of your visitor and to make navigation easier. You can get ideas for a properly designed site map online too.

3. Make sure that your site map will provide also the links to the important pages in your web site. This way your visitors will not get lost. At the same time you can ensure that your guests will still be able to get the general idea of your web site structure. It is advisable that you make links as simple as possible.

4. Make the link to your site map as visible and obvious as possible in your homepage. Visitors should not spend too much time in locating it or else you might end up losing them.

5. A site map serves more like a table of contents of your website. It should provide all of the different sections of your internet site with all the information and data that may be found in each section.

6. Each of the contents in your site map must have a hyperlink to its respective URL.

7. If you will have to give way to numerous links, you can make use of several pages. You could numbers each site-map page or you could also make use of the contents in naming each site-map.

Having an HTML site map will furthermore help you in maximizing traffic to your web site. Just make sure that your homepage as well all the internal pages are properly indexed. Creating a site map will definitely make things more efficient for you. The links to all the pages in your website will be directly connected to your homepage.

Aim high for your internet marketing endeavors. The more links you have to your site, the higher is the possibility of getting a good rank among the major search engines, so don’t hesitate to learn the rules of the game and make yourself a sure winner.

Jeremiah Patton has been currently using sitemaps for easy navigation for visitors and for better crawling from search engines. Jeremiah Patton uses a sitemap for his work at home moms website http://www.2ndincome4u.com with great success.

Generator sitemap programs can be downloaded from various sources on the Internet. Generator sitemap programs have two fundamental purposes. Generator sitemap programs help surfers navigate a site effectively. At the same time, a generator sitemap program encourages search engine spiders. Google offers one of the most popular generator sitemap programs ever to hit the Internet.

The generator sitemap of google makes it possible for a website to get listed and get updated by the google search engine. Setting up the generator sitemap helps speed up the addition of the web pages of a site to the google listing. The generator sitemap also makes it easier for a site to get noticed by online surfers. In addition, any changes made to a website that has a generator sitemap is immediately picked up by google. The generator sitemap also helps keep online information fresh and up-to-date for users.

Visibility is key to generator sitemap

Visibility is a major concern when using a generator sitemap. A website that is completely indexed has better chances of getting top search engine placement in page results. Many of the popular browsers used by searchers and that support java recognize generator sitemap programs. These include firefox and Internet explorer.

An online consumer that searches for a specific content on the web can immediately be directed to any one of the web pages of a particular site. The generator sitemap makes it easier for a search engine to provide accurate results from web pages they are familiar with.

Who can benefit from a generator sitemap?

A generator sitemap is highly recommended for websites that often do repeated modification of their web pages. A generator sitemap can be used for websites of any size, regardless of the number of web pages a site may contain.

Although using a generator sitemap is not a guarantee of increased site rankings, it does however provide a website a better opportunity of getting listed on a search engine.

Working with a generator sitemap

Most of the available generator sitemap programs available on the web make use of extensible markup language or XML. Similar to hypertext markup language or HTML, XML is used widely in blogs and syndicated feeds on the Internet. Each line of a XML code for a generator sitemap has a specific purpose.

The location or .loc identifies the name of the web page of a website. The line .lastmod indicates when the web page was last modified. The format for .lastmod can either be dd.mm.yyyy, dd.mm.yyyy hh:mm, dd/mm/yyyy or dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm. Shortcuts can also be used to simply the assignment of dates to the cell.

.changefreq advises the search engine of a specific time frame when the web page is regularly updated. This can either be done on an hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or yearly basis. For web pages that are not updated, the value ‘never’ is used. .priority indicates the level of priority that a search engine should give a particular web page of a website. These levels range from 0.0 for least priority to 1.0 for high priority.

Creating a dynamic generator sitemap

Creating a dynamic generator sitemap is useful for websites containing various web pages. The google search engine makes it easy for users to adapt their google sitemap with the help of a python script.

The python script generates a sitemap using sitemap protocol. This creates a sitemap from either access logs, URL lists or from web server directories.

Tips for using a generator sitemap from google

As one of more popular search engines offering a generator sitemap for websites on the Internet, google offers a few tips for its loyal users. Using the google sitemap url encoder/decoder is helpful for submitting sitemaps to google. For websites that have numerous web pages, creating a sitemap can be a tremendous task. For this situation it is best to click on the column title in order to make it easier for a URL list to get sorted.

The google generator sitemap allows users to save their settings after creating a sitemap. Users can use these saved settings as a guideline for succeeding generator sitemap updates. The generator sitemap also recognizes the use of robots.txt files.

Using a generator sitemap is a positive move in getting top ranking on the Internet’s top search engines as well as high visibility among online users.

Jeremiah Patton has been currently using sitemaps for easy navigation for visitors and for better crawling from search engines. Jeremiah Patton uses a sitemap for his work at home moms website http://www.2ndincome4u.com with great success.

An important tip to remember every now and then is that people visit the site checking out for some information. These Surfers can be an unforgiving lot. Once they found things useful for them in a site they would definitely visit every now and then.

The reason site maps are indispensable is due to its helpfulness in letting the surfers understand the site program and plan and therefore, speed up the way to onset to what the site will be showcasing. This is a part of the website created where the edifice of a web site can be visible to a surfer or visitor. These visitors can choose the link to where they want to surf with just a touch of the mouse of keyboard.

Here are Significant key pointers of a good site map, which helps visitors at finding information faster on a web site:

· The site map should be the simplest page on the web site.

· Keep the name "Site Map" so those visitors won’t be having a hard time looking for it.

· Always avoid "dynamic" site maps. Those in which the visitors have to find their way easily to get hold of information.

· If the site map is list of text links, use the TITLE attribute of the anchor tag and include keywords inside it.

· Putting a sentence describing the page contents below the link for that page on a site map is always good.

· It should not be the primary navigation on the web site it should complement it.

· It is very important that there is a link to the site map page and all pages should carry this link. The site map link can be combined with other links in the main menu on the web site or placed at a section on the web page from which is it clearly seen.

· Other important factors on a web site should complement site maps. For example, the link color for visited links should be different from that of not yet visited links so that visitors have a clear idea which pages they have already seen and thus, save time.

In addition to the advantages a site map showcase to "living" surfers, it is also significant for robot surfers from search engines . As a web developer should be aiming to get all visible pages on the web site found in the search engine database. As expected a site map, from one page to another, should carry links to all, it is an ideal form to submit to search engines . Submission of the site map to a search engine might help in getting all web pages indexed quickly by the search engine. I may be incorrect since I have no data to support this point but it just seems logical. However, on a similar note, there is still a limit to all the information that a search engine could provide a visitor. For example, if there’s a page which is not found in the directory program of the web site, it will not be detected other search engines. With this in mind, another importance of a site map it tells the search engine instantly to go to a specifc page rather than scouting through the links.

Two important questions:

1. Will the website appear as it was planned even for robots?

2. Are the pages exact and effectively designed?

Having a site map assists the creator in planning the site before he can even start creating it. Once the pages have been decided, the whole thing becomes simpler and the web pages designs are easily matched to the creator’s ideas.

There are 5 important tips in making a good site map:

Good Site Must-Have 1

The logo should be linked to the website homepage.

Good Site Must-Have 2

The Site map must be place either on top or on the upper left, under the header. Unless everything’s in order already and sure about the design, never try to alter or make changes for a while.

Good Site Must-Have 3

There must be a congenial way to go around searching the web site. Do not place the site map in a location that is different from one page to another, like if it is placed horizontally on one page, it should be placed horizontally on the rest of the other pages. However, the case is different if it is a navigation system for a homepage. This could differ in homepages.

Good Site Must-Have 4

Additionally, the logo of the homepage should be linked with a “HOME” or any equivalent sign for easy work around or navigation. There should also be a “contact us,” “about our site,” pages to be visited.

Good Site Must-Have 5

The golden rule for a good site map is that the number of a visitor’s clicks should be leading him every step of the way and not jumping to other pages. It is required that the move should be as easy, reliable and above all, very user-friendly.

Jeremiah Patton has been currently using sitemaps for easy navigation for visitors and for better crawling from search engines. Jeremiah Patton uses a sitemap for his work at home moms website http://www.2ndincome4u.com with great success.