Sitemaps have been around on the Internet for quite many years. Those new to the Web may only have come across the XML sitemaps made popular by the major search engines such as Google and Yahoo. However, a different form of sitemap pre-dates these modern examples by many years.

When the Web first started to become mainstream, we didn’t have all the sophisticated navigation tools that Web designers today take for granted. Websites were typically much simpler than today and it was often difficult for visitors to gain a clear understanding of how a site was structured. On top of this was the lack of search functionality within the majority of sites, making it harder for people to get to the information that they were looking for.

To address these challenges, sitemaps were created. Quite simply, a sitemap is a page that is accessible from all pages within a site (usually from the footer) and contains a list of all other pages within the site. It’s usually built in such a way as to group pages together in the same way that the pages are categorized through the main navigation. However, the great thing is that everything is in one place.

I want to consider the importance of this form of sitemap today, regardless of if a more modern XML sitemap is in use.

Site Navigation
Bear in mind that not every browser displays your web page exactly as designed. Maybe you’ve created your navigation as images, but the user has images switched off, or that your innovative JavaScript menus don’t work since the user has disabled JavaScript. In both of these situations, unless you’ve created some  complex coding to get around the limitations of your visitors’ browser, the end user could be left unable to navigate your site.

If this happens, but you have a sitemap link at the bottom of each page, all is not lost. Anyone who regularly uses such a restrictive browser will already be used to searching out alternative navigation and will likely scroll straight to the bottom of the page to click on the sitemap link. From here, they’ll be able to navigate around your site as if they’re using a laser guided website-GPS!

Conveying the “Big Picture”
Another great value of a sitemap is that it’s often the only point on a site where a visitor can obtain a complete overview of everything that you offer and how it’s structured. This is extremely powerful in conveying your theme, or your “big picture” to your audience. This can save your visitor significant time as they won’t have to read through every page to comprehend this, and they’re more likely then to click-through to the areas that really interest them.

Search Engine Optimization
There – I said it! Search Engine Optimization! You knew that SEO would be mentioned here somehow, didn’t you? To be fair, many people don’t realize that these simple sitemaps can be essential in your SEO strategy, as they believe that they’ve been replaced by the more common XML sitemaps. However, in a world where links are King, consider the value of having one page that links to every other page on your website.

Think about it – whatever page the search robot happens to hit your site on, you’re guaranteed that EVERY page in your site will be crawled if you’re using sitemaps! How do you think this will affect your rankings? I can assure you, it will be positive!

Organization
On a more practical level, having a sitemap in place gives you, the site developer, a complete overview of your website. This means that whenever you come to make updates or to add new content, you can use the sitemap as a point of reference to establish where the changes fit best. This saves you having to hold the complete structure in your head and forces you to work in a more disciplined, and hence more structured manner. The result – better websites which serve your users better and ultimately serve their purpose within your business.

From this post, the fantastic benfit of sitemaps should be completely apparent to you. For anything other than the most basic website (such as sales pages) a sitemap should be considered essential. In my opinion, they’re equally as valuable as XML sitemaps for SEO, and significantly MORE valuable to your visitors. At the end of the day, it’s your visitors who you’re asking to spend money with you…!

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