Importance of sitemap facts
Sitemaps are often ignored by lots of bloggers and webmasters. I have visited many blogs and website which do not have sitemap page.
Talking about the importance of sitemap for blog SEO, though it is not a must-do, but it is very useful, especially if you have a very big websites, or even blog.
In blogs, as you know, it has lots of new posts, and pages, categories, and so forth, therefore, it is definitely helpful for your readers if you have a sitemap page.
Before we discuss about importance of sitemap further, we are going to talk about sitemap html on the page, and not Sitemap xml. (related post: create sitemap xml wordpress).
I still have not made any tutorials how to make it, but definitely I will, because it is very important. Feel free to subscribe if you like, so if I do create the tutorial, you will be notified.
Importance of sitemap – Sitemap Demo
Earlier above, I have mentioned that sitemap HTML page is different than Sitemap.xml file. The sitemap HTML is more for our readers, and sitemap.xml is for helping search engines to crawl our site easier.
In this blog, I have both of them, so here are the both sitemaps demo: sitemap.xml, and sitemap HTML page.
I hope it will help you to see the difference between them two.
Importance of sitemap – So what is a sitemap page for?
Here are the importance of sitemap page, and benefits of having a sitemap page, based on my experience with this blog, I have checked my stats, lots of visitors go to my sitemap page..
1. Importance of sitemap #1.
It gives you and people who visit your blog have an easy navigation.
Let me explain, if your site has so many pages and posts (typical blog structure) it would be so hard to find a specific post.
This will end your readers who want to browse your site, will get lost before they find the post they really want to read. With sitemap, they will always be able to go to your sitemap page, and look for some posts which they really want to see.
2. Importance of sitemap #2.
One page is like a shortcut from all the pages in your site. When your visitors click on your sitemap page, they will see the lists of pages, or posts in different categories, as well as anything that is displayed in your sitemap page.
Everything that represent your whole blog or website can be found in the sitemap page very easily.
3. Importance of sitemap #3.
It is a benefit for Search Engines Optimization. When you have a sitemap, not only it helps your visitors (which is more important than search engines) but it will also give advantage for SEO purpose.
Generally speaking, when Google bots or other search engine bots comes to this page, and you have the links on dofollow, they will index each posts which are displayed on this page.
4. Importance of sitemap #4.
You blog is more organized. As mentioned above, sitemap contains a kind of hierarchy of your blog’s content. Although I know it is not so easy creating a sitemap page in wordpress without plugin, but sitemap oganizes and sorts the posts and pages into its categories, and listed accordingly.
I am sure there are much more benefits, but with my four reasons above, I guess a sitemap page is worth to have in a website, especially wordpress blog, since it has post as well as pages in depth. The importance of sitemap is actually all for your readers to navigate easily in your website.
I have seen most of my friends have sitemap. It really is helpful. I haven’t done it on my blog yet. I have few posts so far. One day, I will.
Hi Kimi
I use a .txt sitemap.
Each time I write a post I add it to the .txt document and resubmit it.
Do you think that I should be looking at an XML sitemap instead or is the .txt one good enough?
Hi Keith,
I prefer the xml, because it is automatically generated, save my time, and it does not hurt..
I guess you can try xml sitemap, but I am not sure if it affects the SERP, I don’t think so, but Google has been weird lately LOL
Thanks
Kimi.
I am searching on the importance of sitemap and then I found your site. After reading your post, I realized that sitemap is a must not only for human visitors but for SEO as well. Thanks!