Usability Considerations

Web designers and their clients will find it almost impossible to please both site users and the search engine crawlers that determine page rankings. But, it is possible to work around problems. Of course, the needs and wants of viewers come first because you want them to keep visiting your site. It is very easy for users to fall away from a site and never look back.

When it seems that users’ preferences are dissimilar to crawlers’ preferences, there is a solution – a site map. There are two types of site maps which you should be aware of: basic site map and XML site map.

A basic site map is an overview of the navigational structure of your website. It is nothing more than just text and links to all of the pages in a site. Crawlers are very keen of site maps. It allows you to outline the makeup of your site down to the second or third level of depth, using text-based links that should include anchors and keywords.

A search engine crawler is able to locate the site map of a page and then crawl all of the pages that are linked from it. Those pages will be included in the search engine index and will appear on search engine results pages. Where they appear is all up to how well the SEO is done for each individual page.

The second type of site map, XML site map, is a file that lists all of the URLs for a website. This file is normally not seen by a site’s viewers, only by site crawlers that index the site.

All site maps should be thoroughly crafted in order to produce great ranking results. Search engine crawlers take in much consideration when evaluating a site’s map. Make sure that your SEO plan is well done before putting up a website.

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