Technology-Leadership FAQ
July 30, 2008 The Importance of a Sitemap 4

For all of the reasons previously mentioned, it is most important to implement a sitemap for website projects which will be of a considerable size.

In this way, you will be able to keep your website easily accesible and neatly organized for everyone to be able to use, both you and your site visitors. They will be able to find what they need, and not be tempted to click out and go elsewhere.

You will also be able to plan future growth of the site in a scientific, strategic way, to help keep your site growing and your visitors coming back often to see what is new.

You can even use it as a marketing tool: Coming Soon is a way to get them intrigued, and there is nothing better than a fresh, dynamic looking website.

So make sure your sitemap is kept up to date, submitted correctly, and that you monitor the traffic and activities in each area of your site to determine if they are viable, and even if you need a new, exciting area to lure more traffic to your site.

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July 29, 2008 The Importance of a Sitemap 3

4) Organization and relevance

A sitemap enables you to have a complete bird’s eye view of your site structure. Whenever you need to add new content or new sections, you will be able to take the existing hierarchy into consideration just by glancing at the sitemap.

You can see which areas need to be built out, and which completely new sections can be added as a result of a new product line or new marketing program.

As a result of having a site map, you will have a well-organized site with everything sorted according to its relevance.

5) Future Planning

Your sitemap will not only show you what is there, it  can also show you where gaps are in your overall offerings, which you might want to add to help develop a robust site.

If you use the Google webmaster tools in conjunction with your site map, you will also be able to see what keywords and searches are bringing visitors to your site.

This information will help you plan products, sales pitches, landing pages, even different navigation areas, based on the keywords they are using.

The webmaster tools will show you which rankings you have for your Top 20 keywords, and which rankings for the pages you click on.

Often, you will be surprised at the low click through rate on some words versus others, and even at what keywords are bringing them to your site in the first place.

Naturally, this information is only useful if it is acted upon. So any new areas of your site can be justified based on your knowledge of how they are finding your site, and what they most likely wish to do when they get there.

Conversely, if there is another part of the site that is taking ages to maintain but hardly anyone ever uses it, see if you can call better attention to it, roll the content in somewhere else, or give up on that area as not viable. If you test and track it and it doesn’t work, just move on.

July 28, 2008 The Importance of a Sitemap 2

3) Site optimization purposes

When you create a sitemap, you are actually creating a single page which contains links to every single page on your site.

Imagine what happens when search engine robots hit this page — they will follow the links on the sitemap, and naturally, every single page of your site that you want to be visible will be indexed by the search engines!

It is also for this purpose that a link to the sitemap has to be placed prominently on the front page of your website, so people can see what your site is all about on one single page.

Conversely, if you don’t want a page to be found, for example, test pages of sales letters, and multiple versions of a rapid conversion landing page, then don’t include links to them in your site map.

If you have a free Google account, you can access the Google webmaster tools, which have information about how to set up your site map and give it to Google in order for it to be able to spider your site better.

They are also adding to the reports and statistics available about your site all the time. Once you add a little string of verification code in the metatag of your home page, the two way communication can begin. Within a day or so of my adding the code, my site was being spidered by Google every day.

Some sites can wait months or even years to be found by Google, so the site map and webmaster tools are ones you definitely want in your kit to help promote your site quickly, easily, and inexpensively.

July 27, 2008 The Importance of a Sitemap 1

A sitemap is often considered redundant in the process of building a website, and that is indeed the fact if you made a sitemap for the sake of having one.

By highlighting the importance of having a well constructed sitemap, you will be able to tailor your own sitemap to suit your own needs.

1) Navigation purposes

A sitemap literally acts as a map of your site. If your visitors browse your site and gets lost in amongst the thousands of pages on your site, they can always refer to your sitemap to see where they are, and navigate through your pages with the utmost ease.

2) Conveying your site’s theme

When your visitors load up your sitemap, they will get the gist of your site within a very short amount of time. There is no need to get the “big picture” of your site by reading through each page, and by doing that you will be saving your visitors’ time.

They will be able to click on the links they are interested in, and even better, they will see the wealth of content that you have, and hopefully want to return to learn more.

July 26, 2008 Set up a Friend Feed Account 2

Step Three.
Once your account has been created, you’ll have the opportunity to find Facebook Friends, and to import contacts from your address book.

You can also skip this step and browse other feeds to see if you have any connections.

Step Four.
View your FriendFeed.  It’ll be blank unless you’ve connected with others through Facebook and/or your contacts.

Step Five.
You can now add sites to your Feed and begin sharing. Note that your feeds can also be categorized.
Three main categories are available: Favorites, Personal, and Professional. However you can also create custom categories, to organize your feeds the way you need to.

Customizing.

Click on the Link To Your Accounts bar at the top of the page to add from more than 48 sites, including Twitter, Picassa, Amazon, YouTube, Digg and more.

To add personality to your Feed and to create a presence, you can also upload a picture so folks who don’t know you can see what you look like, and folks who do know you can see an updated avatar.

FriendFeed is a remarkably useful tool to connect with friends and family all around the globe. You can use it as a useful and fun social marketing tool.

Make friends, keep friends, and share your favorites with those you choose. You can also stay in touch with the brightest and the best internet resources around the world.