What is the best way to prepare a sitemap?

I heard that sitemap has turned to be the key factor in Google

[AjiNIMC]

Hi all,

Some of the experts told me that Sitemap is the key factor these days and there is a proper way for it.
I consultant 10 experts

20% said that you should keep only the main pages under sitemap(against the golden rule).
70% list all pages(golden rule), 100 links per page.
10% said that list almost all but donot not list the pages such as link page e.t.c

Which is the way to go? What is the new format for the sitemap.

Thanks
Aji

[Brett_Tabke]

The only use for a site map page is a as a bread crumb trail. Something for the spider to follow. To a lesser degree, it does xfer is miniscule amount of page rank and assures that all your main pages are no more than one click away.

[berkan]

Hi Aji,

What is the purpose of a site map? helping visitors to find what they need easily...

Is that ok up to now?
So, you should provide links to all majors pages

[bluelook]

As Brett said, sitemaps are important not only to users, but to spiders too. This will make sure that the spider finds all your pages. It a favor you are doing to them, and to you :)
More pages crawled = to more pages in search engines.
Many AdSense publishers forget this, and thatīs why a lot of PSAīs appear.

[AjiNIMC]

Thanks all,

I have done the same, I have almost all the links on a single sitemap page ( around 90). Is that ok?

I have done it that a user can easily navigate. Divided accoring to the functionalities of the pages.

Any advice for me, I have around 160 pages sites, what should I do , should I have two sitemap pages.

Thanks once again
Aji

[Jakpot]

Is it ok to place the url of the site map on all the pages listed in the site map?

[AjiNIMC]

Nice question but I have seen, the sites with their sitemap link on all the pages and still in top five.

So think doesnt hurt, but not sure.

Aji

[ronin]

The only use for a site map page is a as a bread crumb trail. Something for the spider to follow.

I hate to disagree with Brett, but site maps ought not be just for spiders. Along with dropdown menus, search boxes, nav menus and footer links, site maps are a valid method of site navigation for human readers.

All too often, when I can't find a particular page on a given website, I look for a handy link to the site map - not only because it's easier then remembering which pages to have to click through, but also, more often than not, a categorised list of plain links is more useful and efficient than the site's internal search engine.

Different people have different ways of finding things on the web - a sitemap will definitely enable your site to be more user friendly for a proportion of your visitors.

[pageoneresults]

I'm also a firm believer that a site map or maps are an integral part of any website. I typically set up the site map after the site has been developed. I have what looks like a site map that is used during development stages that shows the outline of the site.

Once the initial phase of the site development is complete, its time to finalize the site map(s). I like to use numbering systems when organizing sites. It is so much easier to direct someone to Section VII, item number 11 then it is to tell them its about half way down the page, right next to... (you probably know the routine).

Yes, keep them tight and easy to navigate. Organize them for users and you'll automatically appease the bots. I normally include a Site Map link in one or more of the consistent navigation includes (can be accessed from any page of the site).

If you have a very large site, you may have a site map that resides in its own directory. Within that directory will be all of the secondary or sub site maps. The main site map will show only links to the secondary site maps. The secondary site maps will link to all appropriate pages in that section.

P.S. A search utility can be useful too in addition to the site map(s).

[Global Wayne]

I too use the site map as a user resource. We have a large geographic site with each region within its own directory. The sitemap is highly referenced from the regional pages.

To this we have added the G search facility and it all works a treat. While PR is only 5 we are a state wide operation in Australia - our SERPS are fantastic. The combination of search and sitemap works well for us and G seems quite comfortable with the concept.

/Wayne

[pageoneresults]

If you have a very large site, you may have a site map that resides in its own directory. Within that directory will be all of the secondary or sub site maps. The main site map will show only links to the secondary site maps. The secondary site maps will link to all appropriate pages in that section.

Another way to do this would be to make your primary site map which points to all secondary categories of the site.

Within each category you have a Table of Contents (TOC) or what is also referred to as a site map. The TOC is the entrance page for that category. This way users end up with short URI paths for each TOC within the site...

www.example.com/category-1/
www.example.com/category-2/
www.example.com/category-3/

[AjiNIMC]

Thanks , now I am planning to divide the site into few different parts as Articles, user account e.t.c. I will think of different category as well.

[synergy]

10% said that list almost all but donot not list the pages such as link page e.t.c

If you have high quality link pages, why would you not want to list it in the site map? The SEO that said that has it all wrong. Thank goodness it was only 10% of who you spoke with.

Golden rule: If any page isnt good enough to be listed in your site map, then it shouldn't even be a part of the site.

[shrirch]

The old yahoo.com and current dmoz.org are good showcases on building sitemaps and theme pyramids in my experience.

Home Page --> Links to all major categories and one level deep etc.

Category --> Links to subcategories, nav trail, similar categories and direct entries

Direct Entry --> Links to sub categories one level up, nav trail and other related entries.

All pages link to certain obvious pages.

The good part about this is an organic inbound link into a content page / direct entry will spread its PR upwards and across.

[SEOtop10]

Small sites:

I generally recommend to have a link to sitemap from all pages and from sitemap to all pages.

Large Sites:

Link from all pages to Main sitemap and to the category sitemap. Main sitemap links to all important pages (10 or so). Main sitemap also links to all category sitemaps. Each category page links to all pages above it like home page, main sitemap and other most important pages (the 10 or so I mentioned above). Of course, it links to the individual pages in that category :)

Arun

[johnlim]

Hi,

For large sites, can I treat the homepage (index page) as main sitemap?

In homepage and every page, links in the header link to all category sitemaps.

The advantage of treat the homepage as main sitemap is that we will have less levels. Is this OK?

John

[keeper]

I agree spiders love a good text site map.

If your site is database driven, be sure to make your site map dynamic so it adds a link automatically when you add new content.

I continually forgot to update my sitemap, then wonder why my new page isn't getting some spider action. Big smacks for me.

Automation is better than human memory...

[madmatt69]

I've just recently acquired a site with over 5,000 pages - no site map, or page list, nothing.

I've searched on the web to find an automated tool to create a link list of the pages in my site for me, but haven't found anything. I certainly don't wanna have to go through 5000 pages by hand :)

Does anyone know of a good program that will create a site map or page list automatically?

[SEO_Sucks]

I have a general question...

How is a logical site map created when you have 20,000 - 80,000 static pages...?

this has always been an issue with my company... as technically, the site being "static" is a sitemap it self...

Am i correct on this or is there a logical method that i can use to create a trail of "Spider Crumbs"?

Thanks All...
.::SEO_Sucks::.

[shrirch]

>> logical site map created when you have 20,000 - 80,000 static pages

Two or three layers of site maps will do it.

[Ledfish]

Not sure if this helps, but I had to create a sitemap for an ecommerce site with over 2500 products in about 30 different categories.

Since the pages were consistantly named (page was actually product title) I was able to quite easily assemble a page name list out of the database by importing the data into excel. Once there, I sorted them by category. I then used excels concatenate function to assemble the html code for each product.

I created a main sitemap with subpages for each category. I then imported the product data in html form into each categories subpages and voila. I had a main site, linked to 30 subpages, with no more than 100 links per page.

The meat of it took me about a day, spent a second day tweaking everything.

[bluelook]

"If the site map is larger than 100 or so links, you may want to break the site map into separate pages"

[google.com...]

[SEO_Sucks]

So Basically, having 80,000 pages will consist of an 800+ page Site Map... at 100 links a page... That doesnt sound very fun or even worthwhile... especially since all the pages are static...

Looks like a site map is not on the horizon for these sites...

Thanks

[bsmiffy]

I've recently been trying a package that creates a site map page for you based on keywords you tell it. It seems to generate a lot of links and I was wondering if this would be negative to me in the se rankings. Name of package not shown, not sure if I can mention it.

[Hanu]

I don't get it.

1) If an "automatic site-map generation tool" can crawl the site and list the links for the site-map, why can't Googlebot or any other spider?

2) If I implement well-crafted navigation on my site, why should a user need a site-map anyway?

3) How does a site-map improve my PR?

[Slade]

1) If an "automatic site-map generation tool" can crawl the site and list the links for the site-map, why can't Googlebot or any other spider?

It's not so much of technical ability as it is reason to do so. Having a sitemap linked from main sections brings all the content closer to the site root. Depending on how much Googlebot likes your site(I'll refrain from using the term PR here), it will only travel so far into your site.

If a bot thinks your site weighs in at a value of x, it will spider only things linked from the home page. If it values you at x+100, it may go a few levels deeper. At x+1000, you might have to beat it away with a stick.

Bringing all your links up to 3(or less) clicks from the home page makes them more likely to be spidered.

Not qualified to answer 2 or 3.

[Hanu]

Aha! Now I know why Gbot visits www.mysite.com/ every day but www.mysite.com/subpage.htm only every two weeks or so. I think it never went deeper than these two levels.

So how do I get x+1000?

Just kidding!

[bobbee]

I make a distinction between a "site map" and a "spider map":

A site map is intended for humans, it may link to every page on a site or just some pages within each major section of the site.

A spider map is intended for the search engine spiders, it links to every page on the site which you want indexed.

Hanu wrote:

> I don't get it.
>
> 1) If an "automatic site-map generation tool" can crawl the site
> and list the links for the site-map, why can't Googlebot or any
> other spider?

In theory it can. In practice, a spider map usually means more pages will be spidered & indexed because all pages are only 1 level deep from the map. A spider map can also be used to bypass problems caused by dynamic content, session IDs, etc. (though this may not be possible with an automatic generation tool).

> 2) If I implement well-crafted navigation on my site, why should a
> user need a site-map anyway?

If your site is small you may not need a site map. As sites get bigger & more complex a site map gives users a second option for navigation. Also, a site that has clear navigation for the designer may not be clear for all users <g>.

> 3) How does a site-map improve my PR?

I'm not sure how it affects PR. I do think a spider map will improve traffic to a site because it may allow more pages to be spidered & indexed which means those pages can bring in search engine traffic.

I hope this helps,

Bob

[Hanu]

I like this forum! I've been to so many mailing lists and online forums before but nothing beats WebmasterWorld! One of the few places where there are people who know their business *and* share their expertise.

Thumbs up, everyone!

[drdsl2000]

Our site needs multiple site maps.

Anybody know of a tool or freeware for this. DreamWeaver MX does not have a plugin yet for site maps that I am aware of.

Gives the spiders food and make-em fat :)

Craig