Do we include a sitemap on our site?

[hittjett]

So what is the general feeling about providing sitemaps for search engines? I have a sitemap on my site, which I placed there solely for the benefit of a spider. Is this a bad idea? I get such conflicting information. . . .

Thanks,

[cyanide]

Nope, never a bad idea.
Not just for search engines but also for visitors, to get an overview of all your pages

[adore]

It is very useful when you have deep web site (3-level and deeper) while it allows for quicker whole site indexing.

[minstrel]

It is beneficial on ANY site.

Make sure you have a TEXT link from the home page to the sitemap, and that all the links to other pages on the sitemap are also text links.

[New]

hello,

I'm busy right now making a sitmap for the site of the company I work for (www.businessforsale.com.au), but does anybody knows if there is a certain lay-out you should use, or certain rule's for making a sitmap if you want do make a good one? And why do you have to use TEXT links?

thanks!!

Lowie

[minstrel]

Originally Posted by New

I'm busy right now making a sitmap for the site of the company I work for (www.businessforsale.com.au), but does anybody knows if there is a certain lay-out you should use, or certain rule's for making a sitmap if you want do make a good one? And why do you have to use TEXT links?

No, no rules, per se - just make it usable for spiders and intelligible (and pretty) for visitors. the Apple has a nice clean sitemap - I swiped and adapted the idea for my site:

Note the text link to sitemap at the bottom of this page: http://www.psychlinks.ca which takes you to http://www.psychlinks.ca/pages/sitemap.htm.

Why TEXT links? to make sure the spiders can read and follow it (they have trouble with some scripts, etc.).

[Mel]

No hard and fast rules but I like to use the linked pages title as the anchor text. If you have relevant and readable page titles this trick not only helps your visitors to undertand what the page is about but gets you some nice anchor links.