Having already determined what a sitemap is – see “What Is A Sitemap” blog post – use these 5 easy steps to create a sitemap and get your organic SEO rankings boosted:
Step 1: Structure
The first thing you need to do is look at the existing content on your website and see how everything is structured.
If you’re starting from scratch, I recommend you look at your competitors websites and take a look at their sitemaps for inspiration.
A simple example would be:
- Home
- About
a. Team
b. Our Mission - Services
a. Service 1
i. Sub-Service 1
ii. Sub-Service 2
b. Service 2
c. Service 3 - Blog
a. Resources
b. Freebies - Contact
a. FAQs
b. Testimonials
The numbered pages are the first-level pages.
The lettered pages are the second-level pages.
The roman numeral pages are the third-level pages.
As a general rule of thumb, I advise my clients to use the homepage as a general overview. Most people spend up to 15 seconds on a website before they leave it. You want them to find what they are looking for within that time-frame.
Create a hierarchy of pages based on their importance and how you want the search engines to index them. Try not to go more that 3 levels deep into the sitemap.
According to Search Engine Journal, you should aim to create a sitemap that has a shallow depth, meaning it only takes three clicks to navigate to any page on your website. That’s much better for SEO purposes.
Create a sitemap for yourself to organise your pages first, before starting your website design. It will help you and your vision.
>> Download the FREE Website Planner Workbook here for a template <<
Do you already have a website? Why not go over your existing sitemap and make sure that it’s still working for you and your business model. You never know, it might have changed!