Does your website have a well-configured sitemap? If it doesn’t, you better hope search engines look upon you favorably.

Sitemaps are used by both search engines and your website users. Encasing the architecture of your website, they list out all of the URLs and pages associated with your domain, linking to each, while clearly defining the structure and flow of content.

For search engines, sitemaps are used to search, crawl, and index your website. When it comes to user experience, sitemaps help users clearly understand the navigation and order of website content, with links provided for ease-of-access.

Below, search engine optimization (SEO) experts AGR Technology explain what sitemaps are in more detail, and give us 5 reasons why they are of critical importance:

What is a sitemap?

The definition of a sitemap: it’s a way of listing all of the published pages on your website in list form, to help both search engines and users navigate the website.

XML sitemap: This type of sitemap is typically automatically generated. Search engines use them to crawl your website (essentially scan it), make sense of the content, and index your website pages within their search results.

HTML sitemap: This type of sitemap can be accessed by your website users. It’s typically a static page containing all of the links to pages on your website, structured in list form that’s easy to view and navigate. This helps users scan, find and access content.

5 reasons why sitemaps are of critical importance to business websites:

1. XML sitemaps make it easy for search engines to crawl and index your website pages
2. XML sitemaps help search engines determine priority pages vs pages of lesser importance
3. XML sitemaps help search engines crawl and index new content on your websites

4, HTML sitemaps help users make sense of your website’s navigation and structure

5. HTML sitemaps act as an architect for your website – and this is particularly useful when building or restructuring a website

What can you do if you don’t have a sitemap, or you need a new one?

Sitemaps are an important cog in the SEO algorithm. It doesn’t matter if you’re running a local start up business offering services to the community, or you’re a national eCommerce website competing for sales, it’s advised that you have a sitemap correctly implemented.

If you’ve already established that you don’t have a sitemap, or you have one, but it needs reviewing and reimplementing, this service is provided as part of SEO Services by AGR Technology.

How do sitemaps impact SEO, and why is SEO so important?

If you’re not aware of the importance of SEO, it’s a topic you really should read up on, as it’s one of the most powerful and valuable marketing channels businesses can utilize.

Sitemaps are just one way to improve the likelihood of your website pages appearing in search results, but in reality, search engines consider hundreds of factors when deciding what website should appear when a search is carried out, and how high up or low down in the results it should feature. If you really want to improve your website traffic, which can result in more sales, service enquiries, investors, whatever an uptake in traffic would result in for your business, you need to be investing in SEO.

If you don’t take SEO seriously, and your competitors do, search engines can and will consider you a lesser option. You are missing out on a world of opportunities.

What can you do, aside from implementing a sitemap, to improve your SEO?

AGR Technology provide SEO services to businesses of all sizes, from local start ups to global eCommerce brands. These services are designed to not only compete with your competitors online, but to outperform them, to scale your business, and to grow.

From local SEO such as maps and business profiles, to link building strategies and keyword research in global markets, AGR Technology have built up a strong reputation as the SEO experts many rely on. See what their clients have to say by reading AGR Technology reviews.

Learn more about AGR Technology

Interested in learning about SEO and how you can use it to grow your business online? The AGR Technology website has their full list of services, a glossary to help you understand some of the more complex terms, and plenty of useful information on improving your search marketing.

Visit the AGR Technology Facebook Page or Connect on LinkedIn.

Source: https://thenewsfront.com/agr-technology-5-reasons-why-sitemaps-are-of-critical-importance-for-business-websites-seo-and-user-experience/