What Is A Sitemap?

Date First Published: 27th July 2022

Topic: Web Design & Development

Subtopic: Web Development

Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty Level: 4/10

Learn more about what a sitemap is in this article.

Not to be confused with an XML sitemap, an XML file that provides search engines with a list of important pages, images, and videos of a website.

A sitemap, also spelt as site map, is an illustration, drawing, or HTML file, that presents a hierarchical view of the pages of a website used to help visitors find what they are looking for. The homepage will always be at the top of the sitemap and below, the different directories and subpages are included. Sitemaps are usually created in the form of 2D flowcharts, allowing web developers to give an overview of a whole website in one place. Unlike HTML sitemaps, these types of sitemaps are often created during the development stage of a website before any code is written in order to plan the pages that will be included and the hierarchical structure.

What Is A HTML Sitemap?

A HTML sitemap is another type of sitemap used to serve website visitors rather than search engine bots. They are a clickable list of links on a website that include every page (on smaller websites) or only pages for main categories and subcategories of the website (on larger websites) as listing thousands of links can cause sitemaps to become overloaded and confusing. They resemble a navigation bar and provide visitors with a good outline of how the site is organised and arranged. It also defines everything the site has to offer. A HTML sitemap is usually linked in the footer and visible to all visitors.

Whilst a quick and basic sitemap can be an unorganised list of pages, it is definitely not recommended to create that type of sitemap. Similar to the table of contents of a book, a sitemap should make it easier for users to find the information that they are looking for without having to look through all the pages of the website for long periods of time.

HTML sitemaps are good for the usability of a website and SEO as they help users access subpages more quickly and search engine crawlers can find all subpages as they can quickly identify internal links and understand which pages are most important. They were useful in the early days of the World Wide Web when there were no clear navigation bars on websites, but HTML sitemaps still have the role of helping users navigate a website now.

Note:

HTML sitemaps need to be updated on a regular basis. This could include adding links to the latest pages and cleaning up deleted pages.

Is A Sitemap Required?

Not all websites have a HTML sitemap and it is not absolutely necessary to have one, but it is beneficial for the following reasons:

1. Users can navigate and access subpages more quickly due to the hierarchical view of the website. If users cannot find what they need, it will encourage them to leave the website.
2. Search engines can crawl and find all subpages more quickly as sitemaps contain internal links to pages of the website. Search engines often rely on internal links and backlinks to crawl and index pages. Obviously, do not block the sitemap file from being crawled by search engines using meta tags as this will cause search engine crawlers to not follow the internal links on the sitemap page.
3. It can help identify areas where the navigation can be improved.
4. It is useful for organising large websites with thousands of pages.
5. It helps identify the purpose of the website.