Developing Your Site Map

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Site map development takes skill and finesse. Sure anyone can create a page that includes links to every page in your site, but that isn't a site map. A site map is a map to the stars or rather the most important pages in your site; it's kind of a shortcut to help people find information they are looking for.

E-commerce Site Maps

What are the important pages in an e-commerce web site?

Some might say that all pages are equally important. Then again others might say that the only important pages are those that include product details. Both are semi right, but then again both are semi wrong.

The important pages of your e-commerce site are the pages that involve the shopper in the purchase decision. Those pages exist, but are often misunderstood by online marketers due to all the hype about search engine optimization. Don't get me wrong, SEO is important and will always be important.

Which pages involve the shopper in the purchase decision? Oh my, now that's a hard question – NOT! The first page a shopper comes to is always the first decision mark. We're going to call that page the home page. The second is the product listing page or category page. The third is the product detail page, but it is often a problem in more ways than one.

The e-commerce site map should consist of links to the home page and all category or sub-category pages that include direct links to the product detail pages.

Why wouldn't you want to link to every product on your site map?

The answer to that question is simple. Your site map should not be confusing and is developed more for your visitors than for search engines. However, a good site map helps the search engines find your pages as well.

Similarly, a site map for a non-e-commerce web site should focus upon major topic areas. Linking to every page within your web site could possibly be an over extension of your efforts.

Site Map Formatting

A good site map is presented in an easy to use format which could be an unordered list, a definition list, or even a topical presentation with groupings of pages covering the same or similar topics.

The unordered list allows you to present your site map in an easy to follow format. You can nest similar pages or pages that belong to a specific topic. You, however, would not want to nest more than 2 levels.

The codes for a nested list would appear as:

	
		Item #1
			
				Item #1-A
					
						Item #1-A-1

The definition list makes it easy to provide additional information about the pages being linked to. This can help you not only in giving your visitors information about your pages, but also helps the search engines.

The codes for a definition list would appear as:

	
		Item #1
			Description of Item #1
		Item #2
			Description of Item #2

The topical presentation would appear in a tabular format. This can become very confusing for non-visual people if not developed properly.

A properly developed topical presentation would appear as:

Group #1 Item #1 Item #2	Group #2 Item #1 Item #2
Group #3 Item #1 Item #2	Group #4 Item #1 Item #2

The codes for the above table are:

	
		
			Group #1
Item #1
Item #2
			Group #2
Item #1
Item #2
		

		

			Group #3
Item #1
Item #2
			Group #4
Item #1
Item #2

The cellspacing, cellpadding, border and width attributes for your table may be different than what I used. However, the presentation is still similar.

Deciding upon the format of your site map depends upon the level of information you choose to provide your visitors. The topical presentation does not require pages to grouped based upon categorical hierarchies, but it often helps to do so depending upon the level of complexity you used for your categories.

Conclusion

Site maps should be viewed upon as similar to road maps or even street maps. While a street may be connected to several houses, the street map does not list every house or even show which side of the street is even or odd numbers. The street map does however get you to the general vicinity of the house. A site map should technically perform the same function.

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