What is a Sitemap?

A sitemap is a container for all links on a website. Many websites have deeper levels of connection, which are difficult for crawlers to crawl. Sitemaps make it easier for crawlers to crawl website pages. By crawling website pages, they can clearly understand the structure of the website. Sitemaps are generally stored in the root directory and named sitemap. The reptiles guide the way and increase the inclusion of important content pages on the site. A site map is a navigation webpage file that is generated based on the structure, frame, and content of the website. Sitemaps are good for improving the user experience. They point visitors to your website and help lost visitors find the pages they want to see.

A site map is a visual tool that indicates the location and connection of information resources and has navigation functions. The key lies in four aspects: information acquisition, information retrieval, information representation and information association. In short, it is a map-like form that lists the information on the home page according to the category and provides corresponding links. It can provide users with the overall information of the home page, and is a quick entry for users to accurately find the information they need ^{[ 1]}

1. Sitemap (sitemap.xml, sitemap.txt) This kind of sitemap contains all the connections of the website, and is generally submitted to the crawler to crawl. Let search engines index the content of the site.

2. Site navigation is mainly for users who visit the website. The website links are classified and displayed in front of users.

Important pages

If the sitemap contains too many links, people will get lost when browsing. Therefore, if the total number of pages on the website exceeds 100, you need to pick the most important pages. It is recommended to select the following pages to put on the site map: product category page; main product page; FAQ and help page; all key pages located on the conversion path, visitors will start from the landing page and then follow these pages to convert; The top 10 pages with the most visits; if there is an on-site search engine, pick those pages with the most clicks from that search engine.

Map layout

The site map layout must be concise, all links are standard HTML text, and include keywords as much as possible. Do not use images to make links in the site map, so crawlers cannot crawl. Be sure to use standard HTML text for links, and include as many target keywords as possible in the links. For example: "Pollution-free herbicides, pesticides and fungicides" could be used instead of "our products" as the title.

customer habbit

Users generally expect a link to the sitemap at the bottom of each page to take advantage of this habit. If the website has a search bar, you can add a link to the site map near the search bar, or even place a link to the site map in a fixed position on the search results page.

Write the sitemap into robots.txt

When the engine crawler comes in to crawl the webpage, it will first check robots.txt. If you first write the sitemap into robots.txt, it will greatly improve the efficiency, so as to get the good impression of the search engine.

There are many methods for generating site maps on the Internet, such as online generation and software generation. Sitemap maps can be submitted to major search engines, so that search engines can better collect website pages. We can also tell search through robots.txt The location of the engine map. Upload the prepared site map to the root directory of the website. The most important thing is to add the link of the site map to the robots file and make the site map easy to crawl on the page. Generally, the site map is placed in the header and page. Foot position.

1.Sitemap in ordinary html format

Its purpose is to help users have a good grasp of the overall site. The Html format site map is formulated according to the characteristics of the website structure, and the functional structure and service content of the website are listed as systematically as possible. Generally, the homepage of a website has a link to a sitemap in that format.

2, XML Sitemap is usually called Sitemap (first letter capital S)

In simple terms, a Sitemap is a list of links on a website. Making a Sitemap and submitting it to a search engine allows the content of the site to be fully included, including those pages that are more deeply hidden. This is a great way for websites to talk to search engines.

3.Maps recognized by search engines

Because each search engine mainly recognizes map formats with different effects, the following formats are recommended:

Baidu: Sitemap in Html format is recommended

1. Every day, search engines let crawlers crawl on the Internet to crawl pages. The function of the site map is to construct a convenient and fast channel for crawlers to crawl, because the website pages are layer by layer links, which may be dead. In the case of links, if there is no site map, the crawler cannot crawl due to dead links when crawling on a certain page, so it cannot include those pages with broken links.

2. The existence of a site map is not only for the search engine crawler to view, but also for the convenience of website visitors to browse the website, especially for example, the portal type website has too much information, and many visitors use the site map to find the information they need. Pages, which can also improve user experience.

3. The site map can increase the weight of the linked pages, because the site map is a link to other pages. At this time, the site map adds an import link to the page. Everyone knows that the increase of the import link will affect the weight of the page, thereby improving the page s weight. Weight, increasing the weight of the page will also increase the acceptance rate of the page.

Xenu Link Sleuth

Can generate html format map (for small sites) and XML format map at the same time.

XML Sitemap

Online generation tools, when there are many website addresses, it will be a waste of time. If you generate all of them, you will be charged.

Sitemap Generator

Powerful sitemap generator, need to download and install the client

1. Mention the most important keyword phrases in the text and hyperlinks of the site map to help search engines identify the theme of the linked pages.

2. Provide a brief introduction for each link to remind visitors what this part of the content is about.

3. Provide text links to the most important pages on your site; depending on the size of your website, the number of pages, you can even link to all pages.

4. Provide a green channel for search engines, so that search engine programs can quickly include the main web pages.

5. When the user searches for related information on the website, tell them how to search. You can get all the content links you want to find in this one page.

6. Help search engines easily index some dynamic pages. Since some pages will be generated dynamically, if they are not called by user behavior, they will not be displayed. You can place this link on your site map to help search engines index important dynamic pages.