Search Engine Optimization Tutorial

HTML Site Maps

Many sites include a link to a Site Map page. The page displays simple text links which lead to all of the other pages on the site. This can be helpful to visitors.

An HTML site map is not necessary for SEO unless your site has technical issues that may prevent Google from crawling all of your important pages.

For example, having an HTML site map is critical if your site uses JavaScript menus for navigation. Search engines can not follow JavaScript, and will conclude that you have a 1-page website.

When search engines find the HTML site map file, they use it to look for other pages. If your site has a sitemap.xml file, they can use both files. This helps the search engines find ALL of the content on your site.

After creating an HTML site map and adding it to your site, make sure that you link to it from your home page using a plain HTML link. Do not use JavaScript, or it will do you no good whatsoever.