A new "sitemap"?

Listing all your .htm files... is it good?

[gutabo]

Hi again. My boss (again) has this wonderful idea about uploading one(or many)html files(because of its size) that are only a (linked)list of ALL of the .htm files in the site (?!?!). He wants to make a link to this(these) page(s) from the very first link on the main page that google will catch.

I think not, but I have to ask you: is it any good to do so?

Thanks in advance!

[Craig_F]

a site map is a very good idea. However, I would logically name and categorize everything. I wouldn't just list files. Ideally, it should be useable to search engines AND humans.

[Mohamed_E]

From the Google Information for Webmasters [google.com]:

Offer a site map to your users with links that point to the important parts of your site. If the site map is larger than 100 or so links, you may want to break the site map into separate pages.

[Liane]

gutabo,

Its not only a good idea, its a very useful tool to assist in getting your entire site indexed. Within a month of adding a site map, every page of my site had been indexed. :)

I added a link to the site map at the bottom of my index page. Worked like a charm!

[jim_w]

Doesn't it kind of depend on how many pages you have and the linking method one uses as well as site design?

My site isn’t very big and a sitemap would look silly. I have all text links, (as the B man would say its ‘Retro Cool‘ and in my case very retro), so I don’t see why a SE bot would have any easier time with a sitemap. To me, and my site design, it’s just another page to maintain. And yes I still do a lot of stuff by hand.

[Liane]

Doesn't it kind of depend on how many pages you have

Sure it does. If you have a site with only 10 pages and all are linked from your index page ... then why bother. However, if you have 300 pages and many are located on 2nd, 3rd and 4th levels ... then yes, it makes a great deal of sense.

[IITian]

I always first check the site maps of any website I visit. It saves me time. On my website, I provide site map which includes links and description to all the important pages. In future, I am planning to make my new site's index (home) page just a nice-looking site map.

Crawlers too love it. Goodle recommends it. Site maps are a must for web sites of some complexity.

[gutabo]

Thanks for the replies!

I forgot to say, we already have a sitemap (and a good one). My boss wants ANOTHER page(or a group of pages) with just a link list of ALL the pages on the site.(!?!?!) A HUGE list, I must say(we have 13000+ .html pages)

So, what do you think?

[gutabo]

bump anyone?

[creative craig]

Is the one that you have an artcile list ( for example) and doesnt include things like contact pages, about us and other info?

If this is so, then make another page a real site map and keep the two up at the same time, they are both a good idea :)

Craig

[DaveN]

it will add no real benefit if you have a sitemap already try to dissuade your boss

daveN

[takagi]

Having a second sitemap starting at the homepage (but spread over several pages) to the site's 13000+ pages will boost the PR of all these pages but will also reduce the PR of the homepage. This means that the other pages have a better ranking on the SERP, but the homepage will do worse on the SERP. In some cases that is good, on other cases it isn't. That's up to you (or your boss) to decide.