Alaska Web Design

Apr4

Written by:
4/4/2008 3:00 PM 

Many Alaska Web design professionals may tell your business that sitemaps are often considered redundant in the process of building business websites. This may appear to be true if your Web designer is simply going through the motions and believes he is is constructing a website sitemap simply for the sake of having one. In many cases, your Web designer may not truly appreciate the importance of having a business website sitemap. By understanding the incredible necessity of having a well constructed sitemap, your Web design team will be able to tailor your business sitemap to suit your current business Website needs.

1) Navigation the professional Website

Business website sitemaps literally act as a roadmap of your business website. If your visitors browse through your site and gets lost between the thousands of pages on your site, they can always refer to your sitemap to see where they are. Unfortunately, this is a reason, but I've never seen a person do this for the past 5 years on any Web site except for corporate intranets.

Internet purposes and Web navigating behaviors are different than intranet navigating behaviours. Our web surfing habits have changed considerably and most inputs are performed through point and click navigating techniques. Regardless, the logic remains that one main purpose of your business Web site is to allow intuitive navigation through your Web pages.

2) Conveying your business Website's General Theme

Sometimes you will have visitors coming to your site from the "old school" group, where they are compelled to study your site map. This following is incredibly true again for intrnet visitors or employees trying to understand a complex Web design layout. When your visitors load up your sitemap, they will immediately get the gist of your business site. There is no need to spend considerable amounts of time in order to get the "big picture" of your site by reading through each page. In this case, you will be saving your visitors' time and your business money by requiring fewer resources to perform this "instructional" task. Most people immediately understand that the most costly portion for doing business is the salary of the employees. Therefore, Web designers are encouraged to consult business owners and advise them of the benefits a site map can provide their organization. For example, a site devoted to a complex topic of ICAO or FAA aviation risk management systems would benefit from this type of site map in their Website design.

For very simple sites, the above arugument will not be valid, but what follows is probably the most compelling reason for small businesses to have a site map in their business' Web site design.

3) Website search engine optimization and Internet marketing purposes

When your Web designers create a sitemap for your business, they typically create a single page which contains links to every single page on your site. Imagine what happens when search engine robots hit this page -- they will follow the links on the sitemap and naturally every single page of your site gets indexed by search engines! It is also for this purpose that a link to the sitemap has to be placed prominently on the front page of your website as a bare minimum. Many Alaska Web designers choose to place the hyperlink on every page in the footer, and then again in the menu.

The most effective sitemap contains a link to every page on your business Website with a short description of what is on this page. The short description takes additional time, but is well worth the effort. These descriptions of every page should contain many keywords relevant to the Website content your Web designers placed there; however, don't stuff keywords needlessly. Make certain your Web designers know the difference between keyword stuffing and judicious keyword usage. Have your Web designers keep keyword density between three to six percent.

4) Website Organization and relevance for Easy Maintenance

As mentioned above, your business Website sitemap enables you to have a complete bird's eye view of your Website structure. Whenever your Web designers need to add new content or new sections to your Website, they will be able to take the existing hierarchy into consideration just by glancing at the sitemap. As a result, you will have a perfectly organized site with everything sorted according to their relevance. Web designers are not cheap, especially when one has to hire outside professionals. By making their job easier, your Website maintenance costs are subsequently reduced.

Because of the above reasons, it is most important to implement a sitemap for website projects of all sizes. The search engine optimization benefits smaller businesses, while reduced maintenance and educational costs provides the most compelling argument for larger Websites.

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