Guest post by Darla Mittler, CEO of Darla Mittler Document Magic.
People visit your website to find specific information. Even the people who stumble over your website get there by following links to topics that they are interested in. When these people arrive at your website it is important that they find what they are looking for. If your website is festooned in all sorts of graphics, drop-downs, pop-ups, and miles of text, it is very hard for people to find what they seek.
While it is recommended that you keep your website as simple as possible, it is also sometimes hard to do so. The temptation to add someone else’s banner or graphic in exchange for a link on their highly ranked site is always great.
You should, therefore, make sure that you have a ‘find it fast’ option that does not involve yet another ‘search this site’ button. (Let’s face it, a lot of the time these onsite searches either don’t work or they return results that you’re not after.)
The simplest solution to allow your visitors to find exactly what you have on your site is a site map.
A site map is precisely what the name implies: it is a map of your site. A site map lists (with links to the appropriate page) everything that is on your website.
When a visitor gets tired of wading through the graphics and text on your site they can simply click on your site map and go directly to the information that they seek.
Putting a site map on your website is as easy as visiting http://www.xml-sitemaps.com and following the instructions. They will build your site map and give you advice on what to do with it. This is an absolutely free service.
Site maps help your visitors find what they seek. Site maps also help search engines find your site. Put a site map on your website and make people and search engines happy. Just make sure to add a link to your site map so that people can find it.
Darla Mittler
President & CEO, Darla Mittler Document Magic
Darla Mittler Document Magic
Darla Mittler is President & CEO of Darla Mittler Document Magic. With a personal library of well over 1,000 physical books, over half a decade as a Mass Media Buyer for a major bookstore chain, and insights into e-publishing, Darla is ready to help authors bring their works to market.