The Importance of Human-Friendly Sitemaps

There is considerable focus and debate on the use of sitemaps, in particular their role in SEO and website promotion. However, in amongst the well-meaning discussion, there’s very little written about the basics of what they are and how you can make them work for you.

Sitemaps are a simple idea, but many articles on the subject tend to focus on their technical aspects, with little thought given to their actual purpose; that is, to help your site visitors make sense of your website structure and find information they may be looking for.

They of course have a useful secondary purpose in helping search engines crawl and find pages on your site. But a well put together sitemap can help all visitors, both site users and search engines, make sense of your site. Given their simplicity, and their potentially beneficial effects, they are always worth considering.

What is a sitemap?

Sitemaps function as handy signposts for your website’s pages and sections, helping users find what they’re after, and are especially useful if people get lost.

At their most basic sitemaps are simply glorified lists of pages that exist on a site. A rudimentary example might just list every page you have, in some kind of order. A more sophisticated one might split your site into meaningful sections, listing all your products under an ‘Our Products’ heading, for example. Beyond this you can even have sitemaps designed exclusively for search engines to scan, often containing more detailed site information such as the last update time and the name of the author.

Like their namesake they are just maps to help give people some direction when they need it. They don’t need to be complicated, and often work best when you keep it simple. They function as handy signposts for your website’s pages and sections, helping users find what they’re after, and are especially useful if people get lost.

There are two main types of sitemap: sitemaps for people who visit your site, and sitemaps intended for search engines. Although there is considerable debate online about the merits of machine-readable sitemaps intended for search engines and other crawlers, they tend to lose site of the fact that it’s often more useful to produce a sitemap that human beings can read and use. After all, this too can be easily scanned and read by search engines, so it’s the best place to start.

Sitemaps for your visitors and site users

A sitemap intended for a site’s users tends to be a single page listing everything you want people to find. It’s just another page on your website and it should be listed in your main navigation, or somewhere else that’s easy to find.

There are a few ways you can tackle sitemaps, however they all have the same needs in mind: they provide a quick way to find information that avoids effort. A sitemap is intended to be scanned relatively quickly, and acts as a fast reference guide to your site.

Using a simple list

As noted above your sitemap could be as simple as a page with a long list of links to everything you want to draw attention to. An uncomplicated example might be every single page listed in order, with a link to each page (See Example 1). A slightly more involved example might be the same thing with a brief description of each page’s content to help people make sense of the information. On the whole these kinds of sitemaps are of limited use to your site visitors as people tend to prefer some kind of overview or summary of your site, rather than a giant list of pages and links.

This approach, however, is very useful for non-human visitors. Crawler software used by search engines to find and index your pages tends to work along very simple lines: they find links on your site and follow them. For every page they find they make a list of links found there, then visit them in turn. If for any reason your site has a below-average link structure the simple list type sitemap hands all your content to search engines in one go. It’s simple and straightforward, and guaranteed to work.

This approach also has the benefit of being very easy to do. Remember, it consists of a page with a long list of links. If you don't have the time or the budget for anything else, or your site is quite small, then it's really no more than an hour or two of work to prepare a sitemap of this sort (See Automatically creating sitemaps, below).

Just an overview

A more meaningful way to design a sitemap is to create a page that outlines just the main parts of your site; important sections such as your products, contact details and company information, for example (See Example 2). As well as a link to each main section you can use this to add a brief overview of what is contained there. These often work well as they give your users a broad overview of your site, without the detail found by wading through individual pages.

This type of sitemap is designed to offer a glimpse of your overall site structure, but with none of the clutter or detail that can confuse and annoy site visitors. They’re especially useful for focusing attention on sections you think are the most important, such as a products page or a list of articles you’d like people to read.

The trick is to keep things simple and easy to follow even if the person is only glancing at the page rather than reading it thoroughly. You can also use graphics and images to further draw attention to anything you think is important; images of your products or services, for example. Just don't lose site of the fact that a good sitemap should be easy to scan and use. It's really not the place for a sales pitch.

Overviews and lists together

An ideal solution is often to combine both approaches. A ‘main’ sitemap page, listing only the basic sections and giving your site users an overview; combined with a second page listing every single page, perhaps in alphabetical order.

This covers the best of both worlds: a handy, human-friendly page giving your users a quick outline of your site, and a more search engine-oriented list that allows them to visit every single page you have. The approach you choose will depend on a number of factors, however all sites should at least have an overview sitemap to help visitors.

The defining factor: ease of use

The examples above give a good idea of what a finished sitemap should contain. The stress is very much on ease of use, and information that makes immediate sense even to a casual user. It's also important that people can find your sitemap page easily; for this reason a link to the page should be prominently displayed throughout your site. If possible it should be added to your main navigation and appear on every page.

All sitemaps should use the minimum amount of formatting needed to get the job done and, if possible, make use of simple typographic conventions to communicate salient information. Names of sections should be slightly bigger than the body text, and all links should be easily identifiable as clickable links pointing to pages of interest. Although it can be useful to include some images to highlight sections, the best sitemaps tend to be text only. They download very quickly, and use a simple layout to draw the users attention to whatever you think important.

How to create human-friendly sitemaps

Sitemaps can be created in two main ways: manually, or automatically using software. The approach you take will depend on your budget, the size of your site and the skills you have at your disposal.

Manually creating sitemaps

For overview-style sitemaps, where the intention is to create a quick reference guide of the main areas of your site, you can easily create it manually, regardless of the size of the website. As noted above it consists of a simple breakdown of content from your site, with some links pointing to anything of interest. These are no different from any other page on your site, and only require basic web design skills.

The trick is to outline your site in the clearest way possible, using a pad of paper and a pen for example; simply write down all the main sections of your site e.g. the homepage, products section, articles, contact information, and so on. The focus here is not detail, it's just to point to the main elements that are of interest. Once you've compiled a list that you're happy with create an outline for each, with the section title as the heading. A brief sentence or two to introduce the section is needed as well; and, of course, a link to the section itself.

The order in which you present information should be determined by its importance. If you sell products, for example, that should be first, with associated information, like returns policies or security information, nearby and within reach. In addition it's useful to make sure there's links to anything of secondary importance. As with the examples above you should aim to introduce each section with a sentence or two, peppered with links embedded in the text to pages within the section. People expect these links within explanatory text so make sure to provide it (See Example 2).

Even for large websites the best way to produce an overview sitemap is manually. You're generally handling very little information, and software can't always pinpoint the elements of your site that are important or worth highlighting. A good overview sitemap, even for a large site, should be easy to decipher at a glance.

For list-style sitemaps, where the intention is to present every page in your site, it may be a lot of work if your site is large. For smaller sites it's as simple as clicking through each page, taking a note of the page title and URL, then creating a webpage containing the list of pages. It's generally handy to organize them in some kind of order to help make sense of the information. Alphabetical order is fine. For a large website this can be a time consuming and tedious process, and it's generally easier to use software (see below).

With this sort of sitemap it's imperative you clearly mark the name of the page the person is being sent to. Ideally you should use the page title itself; and you should always avoid quoting a URL. This has the additional benefit of helping with SEO. If you have a link to, say, your returns policy then mark it as so; something like: “How to Return Goods”. Search engines use your internal links, and the wording of the link text itself, to make sense of your site. They add to the SEO impact of your site as a whole, and this opportunity shouldn't be overlooked.

If, however, you find the task too big or complicated to be done manually it's worth looking at ways of automating the process of sitemap production.

Automatically creating sitemaps

There are two ways to automatically create a sitemap: using an online service, and using  software you install on your computer. This approach tends to work best for list-style sitemaps, where the intention is to cover your entire site. Overview sitemaps generally require a more human insight into the structure of your website.

There are many sites that offer to provide a free scanning service that will create a sitemap for you. Some of them are very simple, and others can be more advanced. What they all have in common is that the end result probably won't be ideal, and will often involve you taking the sitemap it produces and adapting it a little to use on your site.

Most online services simply require you to type in the URL of your site and they do the rest. Like search engines they start on your homepage and crunch their way through every link they find. The  result is usually a standard webpage, with minimal formatting, that you can then add to your site. The best of them will use the page names as the link text, and some will even use your META descriptions as well (See Useful Links for more on these services).

Similarly, there are many software packages you can install that will do the job. Some are free whilst others charge a small fee. Producing a sitemap like this may only be an occasional thing for your site, so it may not be worth the investment of buying software.

Like online services they start by scanning your homepage and tracking all your links until they have covered every page. Their main advantage is that they tend to have more advanced scanning options, giving you more control over the final output - allowing you to tailor the final sitemap page to your own needs. Because of this the money may be worth it, as it involves less work to then adapt the page to make it look like the rest of your site.

Both of these approaches to automatically create a sitemap have the same advantage: they help cut down the work needed by yourself. If your site is large, and especially if you find that search engines aren't indexing your site properly, they can be a real time saver. However you have to be aware that they have some drawbacks for human visitors (See Using a simple list, above). It's also worth noting that if search engines are struggling to find pages then your site may be badly linked; your own software would suffer the same consequences i.e. you would miss pages. If this is the case you may have no choice except to develop your sitemap manually.

What are the benefits?

Sitemaps are useful pages that your users may find helpful and can help people locate what they're after, hopefully dissuading them from leaving.

There are many reasons to consider adding a sitemap to your website. The most important is that they are useful pages that your users may find helpful. If lost, people may just page back and leave your site entirely. However the addition of a sitemap - with a prominently placed link to it on every page - can help people locate what they're after and hopefully dissuade them from leaving.

They're also quite easy to create, being little more than a simple page on your site. The overview-style sitemap noted above is particularly easy to do, and can be quickly created even for the largest sites. Providing an entire list of pages for search engines to collect is a little more tricky, but can be accomplished with free software, and is particularly useful if you find your pages are not being listed in search engines.

Another benefit, often overlooked, is that the creation of a sitemap forces you to focus on the structure of your site. Many websites have information scattered about, for example some contact information might be in your products section, or your site policies are in difficult to find places. However, the paper and pen exercise that precedes the creation of an overview sitemap often helps highlight any inconsistencies. If you are finding it difficult to track down information on your site, then so will your users. Use the opportunity to reorganize your site if need be. In the meantime add an overview sitemap so people can use it while you are re-organizing the rest of the site. It could improve the user experience whilst you work out what to do.

Finally, search engines use text and keywords to make sense of your site. In a sitemap you have absolute control over the text used in your links, and this is a good opportunity to help search engines classify your pages. Along with the rest of your site it's useful to make sure the text in links pointing to, say, your “About us” section actually makes it clear that it points to the part of your site that tells people about yourself. This is true for everything you link to internally, and it's frequently overlooked by webmasters. A sitemap provides a mechanism to achieve this effectively and simply.

Sitemaps are essential

As noted in the introduction there is a great deal of attention paid to machine-readable sitemaps used by search engines. However, websites are ultimately for real people, not machines, and your main focus should be to satisfy your audience first. Therefore a human-friendly sitemap should be high on your list of priorities. They not only help search engines find your pages, but are extremely useful for your site visitors too, especially anyone who is lost or confused.

Don't forget a sitemap will also add a touch of professionalism to any site, reassuring your audience that you have thought things through. Any help you can give to your site visitors helps inspire confidence, and makes them that bit less likely to go elsewhere. So if you don't have one already then considering creating a sitemap and enjoy the many advantages they can bring.

By Calvin van Hoek

Copyright © 2007 Calvin van Hoek. All rights reserved.

Please note: This article is not available for reprint without express written permission from the author.

Calvin van Hoek writes on a number of subjects related to SEO & online marketing.

Useful Links

Some links you may find handy.

Online Services

There are many online services that will help you produce a free sitemap. They're useful for speed, however most will only produce a very basic sitemap that will no doubt need work before it's added to your site.

• SitemapDoc

Sitemap Software

Software you install on your computer to create sitemaps. These are generally more advanced than online services, and provide many more options for the final sitemap output file.

• Konradp Sitemap Creator

SEO & Web Design

Back to Top