How to add a stylish HTML sitemap in Blogger. [updated]
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On many sites you can see an HTML sitemap, but why it is needed and what impact it has on SEO promotion, not every specialist will be able to give a correct and clear answer. It is these important questions that we will try to answer in this article.
Table of Contents
What is a Sitemap page ?
A sitemap is a web page or a special file with links to all significant pages of the project. It helps users and robots quickly familiarize themselves with the contents of the resource and easily find any page. Figuratively, a site map can be compared to a book table of contents.
If you take almost any site on the Internet with an HTML sitemap, you will notice that it has a tree structure. This arrangement of links is the most logical and understandable. A link to the map is usually added to the footer of the site.
For users, the map serves as an assistant for navigation and visualization of the site structure.
For search robots, the HTML sitemap also acts as an assistant. It shows a list of links to the most important and prioritized pages on the site that contain useful information. Specifies that they should be scanned first.
Correct HTML sitemap
There are three basic principles that underlie the formation of an HTML sitemap:
- Relevance - only working and suitable for promotion pages should be present in this map. You can not include links to various garbage and pages closed from indexing, pagination.
- Reflection of the structure - the map must necessarily match the existing structure of the site and display it as accurately as possible.
- Ease of perception - the site visitor should easily navigate the HTML sitemap.
In addition to the three main principles mentioned above, there are additional ones that you also need to consider when creating an HTML sitemap:
- Include all site links that are not closed from indexing. But exclude pages that occupy more than 80 - 90% of all pages of the site. This could include product, pagination, or article pages.
- Regular sitemap updates. This will allow you to have constantly up-to-date pages on the site.
- If the number of links in the HTML sitemap exceeds 100, then you need to create additional pages. This is most relevant for sites with a non-standard, confusing and complex structure. In this case, it is desirable to generate maps with several levels of nesting. As such an example, consider the HTML sitemap teachwiki.blogspot.com .
Why do you need a site map?
Let's say a visitor comes to a website looking for certain information. He looks at one page, the second, the third... but doesn't find what he needs. If a visitor does not know about search operators , and there is no map on the site, he may simply get tired of searching, close the site and go to another resource.
When crawlers (search robots) come to a site without a sitemap, they also begin to randomly study the content. Of course, robots take into account internal and external links when analyzing . But they will not be able to explore all available pages, since there is a limit on time and the amount of materials that robots can check in one session. It may turn out that some pages will remain unexplored until the next indexing - and it is not a fact that they will be indexed the next time.
It turns out that the site map performs the following important tasks:
Simplifies navigation for users - the user quickly finds the section with the necessary materials.
Shows links for robots to study - crawlers check the pages specified in it.
Speeds up content indexing - you can exclude sections from the sitemap that do not require indexing and move new pages to the top.
In addition, sitemaps contain additional information for crawlers: for example, the date the page was updated and their priority.
When do you need a site map?
On a small site, robots only need competent page linking to analyze the contents of the resource. People can also study a couple of pages without any table of contents. That is, landing pages or business card sites do not require a sitemap.
Here are some sure signs that a resource needs a sitemap:
Many pages, sections, subsections. A table of contents will make navigation easier for both robots and humans.
Few external and internal links. If there are almost no other resources linking to a site and its pages are poorly connected, then it is more difficult for a crawler to find both the site itself and the necessary pages.
A large amount of multimedia content. A sitemap helps search engines extract data from media content and show images, videos, etc. in search results.
Regular addition/update of content. Using the sitemap file, you can specify pages for priority indexing.
The web resource was created recently. Having a site map will speed up the indexing of pages and, accordingly, the project will quickly appear in search results.
How does a Sitemap page work?
Before you throw the code on your blog and just leave it alone, you need to know how it actually works. This is an automated sitemap page that adds the latest posts automatically. You don't need to update it manually every time. On this page, you can see that the posts are categorized according to the labels you provided on the blog. This sitemap page is designed with JavaScript and CSS that automatically accepts your blog feed.
Creating a Blogger Sitemap Page?
Here are a few simple steps you need to follow to easily create a Sitemap page on your Blogger Blog. This is a very simple task where you just need to paste the code.
Adding Html Sitemap Page to Blogger
- Go to Blogger Dashboard.
- Select the Page menu.
- Look for the section titled Create Page.
- Click the Create Page button (Add icon) on the Create Page (Page Menu).
- A New Page Dashboard will appear.
- You can skip the Title and Page Search Description in Post setting.
- In the View section, you must choose HTMAL View else, Compose View and Add code for html sitemap page which is provided by teachwiki. Please choose Html view else widget will not work properly.
- Here are a few things that can be set:
- You just need to change YOUR DOMAIN with your blog domain and publish the page.
- If you want to finish the configuration, click the PUBLISH button at the top.
https://bit.ly/html-sitemap
Conclusions:
An HTML sitemap is a useful feature on a website that both visitors and search engines will need.
When creating a sitemap, you need to be guided by three main principles:
- Relevance.
- Reflection of the structure.
- Ease of perception.