site maps: www.jacksretail.com....

jackson992 · #1 (**permalink**) 11-05-2003, 09:14 PM

I recently added a site map to all my pages and on most pages they take at least 12 pages up. I've been told this looks stupid by another webmaster. Anyone agrree or disagree?

http://www.jacksretail.com/online-sh...es-sitemap.php

<Mod edit to comply with Site Review Rule #1 - Syren>

Nargule · #2 (**permalink**) 11-06-2003, 12:01 AM

The whole point of a site map in my opinion is to give me an overview of a site. A well designed site should have few hits on the site map page.
What you have down on the bottom of your pages appears to me to be random links. They seem to be in alphabetical order, but that was not imediately obvious to me. I would suggest the following:

Dedicate the site map to its own page - that way it does not make each page so long. Provide a link so a visitor can go to the map if he/she gets lost.
Organize the site map - Instead of listing individual products, list the product catagories on the map. Include other important items on the map such as contact information and site FAQs.
Re-oraganize the site - Like I said above the site map should not be relyed on for navigation. A site should be intuitive enough to navigate on its own without the visitor having to "look things up" on a map.

I am confused as to who you are or what exactly is the purpose of your site. Every product I clicked on took me to a third party site.

jackson992 · #3 (**permalink**) 11-06-2003, 12:18 PM

Welcome to affiliate marketing:P

Yes I used to organize by category but IMO organizing by product name is much more likely to result in sales. Especially considering most users are looking for a specific item

SyrenSong · #4 (**permalink**) 11-06-2003, 05:17 PM

Hi jackson992 and Welcome to WebProWorld!

I've got to agree with Nargule 100%.

You've got no real organization on the page. Everything's pretty much all over the place. Grouping things together would make the map much more useful to your visitors and they'd thank you for that by returning to your site again and again. Nothing like a little repeat business to increase your revenue, eh?

A site map is supposed to include pages located on your own website. It shouldn't have links to pages on other people's websites. Otherwise it would be called a "multiple site map". ;)

Once visitors leave your site, you've totally defeated the purpose of having a site map to begin with.

Just my 2-cents. HTH!

jackson992 · #5 (**permalink**) 11-06-2003, 08:34 PM

I assume you're talking about the links to my other two sites. Yes I put them in my sitemap because I thought maybe it would help with PR. So what can I do to better organize by product Name? Bear in mind that everything is in php

SyrenSong · #6 (**permalink**) 11-06-2003, 11:23 PM

I think your first step should probably be to select several general categories, then list more specific information for each main category.

For example, you've got Diamond Rings, Diamond Watches, Diamond Jewelry, Body Piercing Jewelry, Silver Jewelry, All Piercings Belly Button Rings, Mondera Jewelry, Mondera Diamonds and Diamond Rings, etc., etc., etc.

You could include all those under the umbrella category "Jewelry" or "Jewelry and Diamonds". The category would have a list of nothing but your jewelry items. Whether they're set up as links or not wouldn't really matter at that point, because they'd all be together in one place, making it much easier on your site visitors.

Another possibility would be to have a category called "Jewelry" that links to a single page that has nothing but links to the pages with all your various jewelry items listed with links to those pages.

The second method would take away some of the variety for your site map, but would again make things easier to find for your visitors. It would probably also be better for your SE rankings, because you would have a page with nothing but jewelry, making it more specific.

If you go the second route, I would include some sort of content on the "Jewelry" page with descriptions of some kind, or detailed information on the meaning/importance of the 4 C's in choosing the right diamond, etc., so there's some spider food other than links. (Sometimes pages that are strictly links work against you in the search engines, rather than in your favor.)

HTH!

jackson992 · #7 (**permalink**) 11-07-2003, 07:07 PM

Very good points.

I have been playing with doing something like this. I use php for everything now.

So I thought I would make a separate table for each category. Say, jewelry table, a separate table for games etc.

Then I could pull the links from just that category table. I think this would be closer to what you are suggesting?

jackson992 · #8 (**permalink**) 11-09-2003, 02:50 PM

Thank you everyone for your comments. I have now got some category links on a lot of the pages. Will take forever to get them on every page lol. Please tell me if you think that is better

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