It’s important to have a map of your site to get your web site for both search engines and visitors alike. But what is a site map?
What is a Site Map?
It is a structured and sometimes navigable list of pages of a web site. You can think of it as a floor plan but for your website to show the pages which are accessible to web crawlers and users.
Do you need one? Like the typical Google fluff, Google likes you to have one in place because it makes for a better user experience for those browsing your site, plus it makes Google’s job easier when it comes to crawling your site. Bottom line: with all things equal, a site with a map in place will trump one without it in the SERPs, plus it’s point and click easy to do, so get to it!
How to Make a Site Map
Making one is very simple these days and you no longer have to make it up from scratch. Here are a couple of free resources for making one:
If you’re using WordPress then I highly recommend this plugin. It’s free and makes creating it a one click process, plus it automatically updates when you make changes and updates to your site; free convenient, indeed.
XML Sitemaps is another service which makes creating one a snap if you don’t have WordPress. You have to upload it yourself, however, and I believe that you have to update it manually, as well.