Creating
a Site Map
A site
map is a useful part to a large site, and can act as an assistant
to your visitors, especially if they know what they are looking for, know
that you offer it, but either have limited time or cannot find it through
your normal navigation. It also assists search engines with finding all
the pages of your site, especially if you are using javascript navigation.
Google's webmaster guidelines
advise that a site map agrees with their webmaster guidelines. However,
they do suggest you limit your site map to no more than 100 links per
page.
Instead, break
your site map down into natural categories, such as by subject, or by
each section in your navigation bar.
Some also find
it easier to start drawing out their site map on paper first, so you
can see the natural flow. You can then add that information into the
individual site map pages.
Some webmasters
prefer not to include a site map, however. One reason is that you are
handing easy navigation of your entire site over to competitors who
may decide to mimic your success.
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