Does a simple site need a site map?

[MarkHodson]

Hi, it's my first post. Be gentle with me.

I understand robts use site maps to navigate around sites and index all their pages. But does a simple site with all the other pages linked on the homepage also need a site map? Wouldn't this just be duplicating the work of the homepage?

That's it, simple one to start with. Hope you can help. Thanks.

I love this site, by the way.

Mark.

[bhartzer]

Web sites don't need site maps if they're designed correctly. When I say "designed correctly" I mean that the navigation of the site is logical; the most important pages on the site have the most links and the rest of the pages are "categorized".

I wouldn't link to all the pages on the site from the home page--unless there's 5 or 10 pages or less on the whole site.

As long as the crawlers can find all the pages on the site, there's no need for a sitemap page.

[sands]

Question is, will your site remain small long term? If yes there is no need for one. Check out this link for more info: Do I need a site map - Forest Software
Especially the answer to the question: What use is a site map?

[wige]

I think the only time you might get some benefit from sitemaps on a small site is if the site is brand new or has been recently redesigned, and you want the search engines to be able to find the new pages more quickly than by discovering them through links. Google is pretty quick, but some other SEs are a bit slower to detect changes. Also, if you are expecting to expand your site in the near future, having a sitemap and getting used to setting it up and maintaining it now may make it easier as the site grows.

[amar]

Thanks for the post Sands.. Its so informative..

[MarkHodson]

thanks for your replies. Follow up question:

This site belongs to a friend and is quite new: www.welove2ski.com. It's a large site with a couple hundred pages. Some of the pages been indexed by Google but not all of them. Would a site map make this happen or is something else required?

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by MarkHodson

thanks for your replies. Follow up question:

This site belongs to a friend and is quite new: www.welove2ski.com. It's a large site with a couple hundred pages. Some of the pages been indexed by Google but not all of them. Would a site map make this happen or is something else required?

Well if their indexed or not doesnt matter. Are they getting crawled or not is what is important. So are they getting crawled?

[martty]

I don't use sites maps on any of my sites (except one). I used them on some and it made no difference. the only site I use it on and it does seem to help is a large dynamic one.

[MarkHodson]

incrediblehelp - the site in question isn't being properly indexed. Google has crawled just 9 pages, and the site contains several hundred pages (all high quality content). Last cached May 10.

forgive my ignorance, but could this be a problem?
<meta name="revisit-after" content="28 days">

does this tell the spiders to come back at least every 28 days, or don't come back for anoher 28 days?

or could it be a problem with the URLs which look a bit messy, lots of ampersands, etc.

thanks for your interest, fellas.

[martty]

Originally Posted by MarkHodson

forgive my ignorance, but could this be a problem?
<meta name="revisit-after" content="28 days">

does this tell the spiders to come back at least every 28 days, or don't come back for anoher 28 days?

Just delete it as no search engine takes any notice of it. it won't be the problem