A site map is a file with all the information about the pages and other elements on your site and how they all relate to one another. Search engines read your site map in order to crawl your site more efficiently. It’s a kind of filing cabinet for your website and it is a crucial element, both for the team building the site, for users who visit the site and for Google (which makes it vital for effective SEO work later on). Drawing up a site map helps you to ensure that all the relevant information is present on your site and that it is all laid out in a logical way that will facilitate a great user experience and make it easy for Google’s spiders to track your website and its content.

Some people may overlook the site map because it isn’t particularly exciting. If you are creative-focused, you may not realize its importance. It is mechanical because it needs to be in order to help you make a website that is optimized for UX and SEO. It is also a great exercise for you as you think about your website because it forces you to think about what you are signalling to your customers: what is most important in your online communications? What is your order of priorities and how do you structure your product and service offerings?

Find out more about CIPR Communications’ web design services by listening to the seventh series of our podcast. For more information about web development, from site map to launch, as well as content marketing, SEO and our other services, read our blog, listen to other podcast episodes, or contact us.