Virtual Hand-Holding: Aids in making sitemaps

In virtual hand-holding, it is an important tip to remember that people visit the site in order to look for some information. Internet surfers are an unforgiving lot. They only visit sites that are useful to them. With thousands of websites out there that offer the same features as your own site, how do you stand out? This is where sitemaps come in.

What is a sitemap, you ask? Just as the name implies, this is an aid that makes navigating a website easier. The premise is basically the same as in an ordinary map. A sitemap contains the structure of the website as well as links to the site’s major parts and subsections. Now, if your site offers sufficient information as well as easy navigation then you have hit the jackpot. Your site will probably generate more traffic than your competitors’.

Another advantage to having a site map is that search engines love it, mainly because of two things -- text and keywords. Therefore, it might also prove beneficial to combine relevant keywords with hypertext links. For instance, if your sitemap has a link to website promotion, then your hyperlink should contain the words 'website promotion' and then linked directly to that page in your site.

Contrary to what a lot of people think, a site map need not be fancy. It’s good for it to be catchy, though what’s important is for it to be clear and easy to navigate. In order to have a good site map, one must remember four things.

First, a prominent link to your sitemap should be placed on every page. It should be labelled as SITE MAP so that surfers can easily spot it.

The next thing you need to remember in order to have a good sitemap is that your sitemap should show all your web pages through different levels as basic text links.

The third thing to remember is to use standard colours for links and for the visited links as well.

Lastly, your sitemap should show a quick and easy-to-follow overview of the site without the need to scroll around in the web browser.

Google and Yahoo had begun allowing people to submit site maps to their account as a way of informing them about your web pages as well as the updates to your site. Although it does not help your page ranking any, it’s still worth taking the time to set up properly.

As more people came to the conclusion that sitemaps are indispensable, more and more sites have began offering free software for generating site maps. A quick search on Google for advice on creating a site map initially cropped up many links to software you could buy or download for free to create a site map. One such site is www.xml-sitemaps.com, which offers a free online sitemap generator.

When you are done with your sitemap, do not forget to tell Google about it so they can nose about and hopefully index all the pages of your site.

Sitemap Generators: Good investment for online businesses

For those who are not familiar with sitemaps, a sitemap is quite simply a map or a guide that lists all the sections and pages of your website. One may find that a lot of websites have this feature, particularly the HTML type, for the benefit of users or visitors who have specific needs that may be answered by content in your site that is not readily located by clicking on section links or using search engines. It is a practical way of ensuring that users of your site are able to maximise the site to suit their needs.

Aside from the HTML sitemap, other types are the Text and XML sitemaps. A text sitemap is a simple text file containing your website’s list of URLs, and that may then be submitted to a search engine, such asYahoo, to inform them that the pages are up. This, then, allows their search engine spiders to visit the site and index it for future searches. An XML sitemap, meanwhile, is one in a formatted file recognised by Google Sitemaps that helps the search engine index your site’s URLs and keep track of changes made in the site.

Those who do business online recognise the reality that their sites need to be constantly updated with offerings and content that are interesting and in high demand, to keep the business running. As your site grows with more and more pages, while the increase of similar sites—your competition—threaten to reduce your hits, an updated sitemap proves more vital in the survival of your venture. Moreover, using all three types of sitemaps can help boost exposure for your site.

For this job, owners of big websites or a multitude of small online businesses can make use of free sitemap generators available online. Purchasing an unlimited version sitemap generator is also a good idea for the most updated sitemaps. You can think of using sitemaps as free or low-cost advertising for your business.

Online businesses with constantly updated sitemaps of their websites can make sure Internet users who are voluntarily seeking out specific information will find their way to the site’s content that even closely matches their needs. For instance, when a user does a search for a specific product, an updated sitemap can help a website with a wide array of product offerings to be included in the results and provide the user with a direct URL. Consequently, both the website and the user benefit from it; with the help of a sitemap, the search engine takes the user directly from the results page to the relevant web page, and with more people easily finding your site, business profits are not that far behind.

The easy way to build sitemaps for your site is to find a website generator that creates all three types of sitemaps. One such product is provided by XML-Sitemaps.com, which has basic the information on sitemap generation, as well as easy to follow guidelines.