Sitemaps

For Spiders or Customers

[mdean]

Am debating where to put our site map link. We know that they are important for search engines. But what about customers? Do we put the link in a prominent spot for their use?....or we just wasting valuable space where other information links could take it's place?

Any help would be appreciated!

[leadegroot]

While the html sitemap is a very powerful ranking tool in the engines, some of your vistors will also use it navigate your site, particularly if they are feeling lost.
Some say the sitemap link should be prominently displayed, eg at the top right. (and, of course, I can't find the entry to the blog discussion where this was proposed right now :( )
The rest of us say that everyone is used to looking for the sitemap link in the common footer at the bottom of every page.
Definitely include it on every page, though.

[lorax]

I think that a flexible site search tool would be far more useful to your users than a site map. The convenience of just typing in what I'm looking for and hitting enter is far more appealing than having to look through a few dozen or hundreds of links on a single page.

[jsinger]

Most visitors navigate our fairly simple commerce site by drilling down thru links, not by using the text search form. Text search works inadequately on many sites including ours. See a recent discussion here on that subject.

I sometimes look at sitemaps to navigate sites I'm not familiar with. We don't have one. If we did, I'm pretty sure I'd have a visible link to it.

This is a subject I've wondered about.

[rocknbil]

will also use it navigate your site, particularly if they are feeling lost.

Seems like if visitors can get lost it's time to re-think the navigation scheme! :-)

I have to agree w. jsinger on the search concept. The more "technical" a person is the more likely they are to hit the search; less technical people seem more comfortable with links. Searches are hampered by user input errors, such as typos or searching by keywords that *may* be relevant but might not even be part of the pages, hence won't be part of the results.

This issue is similar to graphic representations vs. textual representations, in which some people are scanners, some are readers. Some people are searchers, some are "link-clickers." You should try to have both.

As for a sitemap, if your navigation is robust you shouldn't be more than three clicks away from the content anyway - but redundancy is always good.

Does not have visible sitemap. :-(

[lorax]

Yes, the caveat is that if you use a site search tool then it should be simple, flexible, fast and - by gum - work as it's supposed to!

[leadegroot]

Usability 101:
When a visitor first arrives on a new site, there are 3 classes of action they may take if the content doesn't appear to immediately satisfy their needs:
* look through the navigation on the page
* hit the search box on the corner
* look for the sitemap link.
(and hit the back button, but thats not on-site nav)

I believe the 'sitemap users' are the smallest of these 3 groups, but they are still there.
Saying '*I* search this way, every else must too' is doing damage to your visitors. You and I are *not* typical users, we are far too experienced.

Use the sitemap, Luke. ;)