By : Nidhi Gupta

Sitemaps are your Table of Contents to your website. They serve to save a users’ time allowing them to browse for specific information. Sitemaps are also used by search engines to find specific keywords or phrases.

Creating sitemaps has become much easier with the introduction of software technology. You will only need a notepad, program editor, and a little some ’stick-to-it-tiveness’.

Step 1
Using your notepad or any word processor, type all the parts of your website. Be sure to include all the pages and links. Format the document like a list of contents. This will serve as a draft.

Step 2
To insert the document on to the website, create a new page or use one of the existing pages. Now using your notepad add all of the necessary tags for a webpage or use your website creator program.

Step 3
You must not create a link to the sitemap. Create a link on the front page of your website and on each page thereafter.

Step 4
Now make sure the sitemap is working correctly. Make sure that each and every link for errors and then fix them accordingly.

Step 5
The sitemap is now ready to be loaded to your browser and double checked. Does it run smoothly?

If you don’t have what it takes to setup a sitemap manually then try searching for an online program that will do the work for you. This will provide a generic sitemap but it will function the same. Otherwise you can customize your own with some simple computer know-how.

Sitemaps are the lifeline of your website. People can find things more efficiently and the sitemap will let you know if they have found it. And during their browsing they may find something else of interest.

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