Years ago, getting back links to a website was the most important factor in SEO, but now, that is not the only important factor. This article explains the use of sitemap in SEO as an essential factor in assisting web crawlers to navigate a website.
Search Engine Optimization. A lot of people are clamoring to know exactly what it is. SEO is the process of enhancing the presence and visibility of a website on search engine listings. Not only is it a process, it is about the tool required to make the enhancement happen. There are two main types of search engine optimization:
- On page Optimization
- Off Page Optimization
When SEO was in its infancy, getting back links to a site was the most important factor. In fact, many books and articles written on the subject will still tell people that getting back links is the only proper way to optimize a website. Back links with proper anchor text, of course.
After search engine optimization has a chance to mature, SEO specialists became aware that using only back links is not at all the best way to optimize a site. In fact, if an SEO is only creating back links, the site is not getting optimized.
In On page site optimization, there are techniques and tools that are related to your own website and in OFF page optimization, there are items which are related to the other websites. In On page the old technique was Meta Tag Optimization, appropriate content, Alt tag optimization, proper navigation for the website and much more activities through which changes were made to the website, itself. In OFF page optimization, only back links were created.
Today, optimization is a little bit different. While usimg the old techniques are still appropriate, creating a Sitemapcan be added to the list. Sitemap is something that came in existence a few years ago.
A Sitemap is a graphical representation of the architecture of a website. There are two kinds of site maps. The first is used to assist visitors to a site to navigate the site and the second is done in XML. XML Sitemaps, usually called Sitemap with a capital “S”, are used by Goggle to gather information about the site.
Sitemap is especially important if your site:
- Has dynamic content
- Has pages with a lot of flash or AJAX
- Is new and doesn’t have many links
- Has a lot of archived pages that are not linked well, or not at all
The use of Sitemap becomes doubly important if the site has pages that can only be accessed through user entry. Sitemap will assist web crawlers in finding and accessing the pages.
March 5th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
I agree for the most part but using PMOG for some time now actually has made me yearn for a widespread use of the anchor-tag in sites again ’cause it makes it possible to jump to a specific statement in an article rather then just regurgitate the whole page to make a statement. Google has already taken away the homepage and in the next phase the reader will dissect an article even further to be used for further consumption.
What I am missing in the article however is the tools by which the SEO professional decides how, for instance, to optimize the navigation of a site. There are a lot of sites out there that assume they have mostly returning visitors who know how the navigation works. If you show them that 80% of their visitors arrive just once (by using Google Analytics or some other stats-application) then it\’s a whole new situation.
May 9th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Thank you for the tips on sitemaps!
Regards,
David
Home Based Travel Agent
Self Help Ebooks
November 15th, 2008 at 8:22 am
Sitemaps are critical to the overall SEO strategy. Take a look at the new sitemap solution it is called an AutomaticSiteMap, set it up once and never have to manually update your map again. Did I mention it’s free? http://www.automaticsitemap.com
July 27th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
You are right site maps help seo companies get pages crawled quicker.
July 27th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
Site maps are crucial to us in the seo sector.
August 10th, 2009 at 5:38 am
What a wonderful post.. Grateful tips on a subject that is very important to know to help getting a website ranked on the major search engine.
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Email Marketing Software
September 2nd, 2009 at 4:25 pm
i just re-did a sitemap and after the changes i notice big shift of traffic to the website.
September 18th, 2009 at 2:01 am
Thanks for reminding many of us importance of Sitemaps. This one seems to have been most ignored or forgotten about among many Web Masters and SEO Experts.
An important point to remember ALWAYS is that people come to your site looking for information.
I have had several clients who returned back to me after their site map ranks higher for a particular key word that the actual page which has been optimized for that key word. Some of them like this while others mention that they would prefer of visitors go directly to the actual page.
A site map helps you in planning your site before you even start creating it. Once Now I’m back to updating mine.
Once again, Thank you for posting this. Very informative
December 14th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
I Like the post. I guess it’s hardly suprising that with the focus on pleasing the search engines, XML sitemaps have become important. But if it’s all about providing a better user experience, then HTML sitemaps should not be forgotten.
December 23rd, 2009 at 5:21 am
I’ve got a news blog, and I got a sitemap.
But it’s not named a sitemap, the anchor tekst is something like “read old news” and it links to /sitemap
does this matter?