The User Experience Blog for Website Architecture Planning

It is a common publishing practice to include a table of content to any book. Actually, a book that lacks a TOC is considered incomplete because readers are likely to get lost somewhere along the way. Furthermore, you will need to occasionally come back to the table of contents for direction on where exactly to find the information you are searching for. This is the same principle on which HTML sitemaps operate; they act as tables of content to your website enabling users to easily find the information fast and hassle-free.

Ever since its inception back in 2005, XML sitemaps have helped current search engines to effectively index and understand websites, and their content better. Unfortunately, some webmasters still overlook this crucial file, with some websites still running without it, not because the owners don’t know how to create a sitemap, but because they don’t understand the worth. Though initially created by Google, the search engines giant later abandoned its baby and joined hands with other companies to design the XML standard, replacing the Google XML standard. This new standards is supported by Yahoo, Google, Bing, and other search engines.

We have over a billion websites in the world today. This means that competition for higher ranking in SERPs is in huge demand today. Website owners are desperate for first page ranking and better brand recognition. There are far too many SEO strategies anyone can turn to, but the truth of the matter is that, no one is guaranteed a better rank in SERPs, especially with the dynamic nature of the web. You have to be the best at what you are doing to move through the ranks. Before your website content is discovered by web surfers, the search engines have to crawl the pages and present the information in an orderly manner to users, this is where XML sitemaps come in. You can use a website mapping tool link DYNO Mapper for this purpose.

Content-rich websites are not easy to navigate. This is especially true in cases where chunks of content are uploaded daily, a situation that may result in some content not being indexed as expected. On the other hand, it is important to note that research indicates that web surfers only spare a couple of seconds on a website before moving on to the next site, especially if they find navigation tricky. Therefore, sitemaps are used to simplify the navigation of a website. They contain a website’s structure, complete with links to all important sections and subsections of the website. It is therefore paramount that every webmaster creates a sitemap for every website that they manage.

You have spent hours or days designing your site, or have it done professionally at a hefty cost by an expert web designer. You have then invested heavily to craft unique content and you cannot just wait to deliver your content to the world and share your experiences, products, services, or whatever information you have in mind. Days fly by and you don’t receive visitors to your website-days may translate into months, and you are almost giving up.  You are wondering what might be wrong, the answer is simple; you site or content has not been indexed.