Navigation structure & Sitemaps
16 November 2020The navigation structure and the XML sitemap of a website are important for findability. A good menu structure helps ensure that the website scores high in search engine results.
Because a high position in search engines is what we all want! You too can achieve this with your website. As long as you invest enough time and energy in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), in other words making the website suitable for search engines.
SEO - menu structure
The structure of the website is important for both the visitor and the search engines. A good structure makes navigation easier, making the website easier to understand. Visitors quickly find what they are looking for and get a good picture of what else can be found.
The most important pages are placed in the main menu (usually in the menu bar). It is important to categorize the website and go from broad to detailed.
Example: if you create a website about cars, it is good to do the following:
Homepage
- BMW
- Z3
- Z4
- Volkswagen
- Beetle
- Golf
But it can also be done this way:
Homepage
- BMW Z3
- BMW Z4
- Volkswagen Beetle
- Volkswagen Golf
In this second example, which is not necessarily wrong, you must realize that you are optimizing for the word combinations BMW and Z3, not specifically for BMW. Keeping that in mind, you can choose this approach. Perhaps it is better to combine them.
URLs
URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator and is a name that refers to a piece of data. The unique address of the location of a web page on the internet, an email address, a reference to any file on a computer, or other storage media. A URL can also refer to a file on a server. A URL indicates which resource should be requested and which technology should be used to access it.
A good URL for the webpage
The address of a page should reflect the structure. To stay with the above example: a good URL for a BMW Z3 page is for example: mywebsiteaboutcars.nl/bmw/z3
It is good if the keyword appears in the URL. You could even make the URL more descriptive: mywebsiteaboutcars.nl/bmw/the-sporty-z3
An additional advantage is that it is much easier to remember. Here a – stands for a space. The _ can be used if you want to display a hyphen. Finally, it is good to know which characters do and do not belong in a URL. All special characters except - _ + and . are not allowed in URLs. At least, not according to the standard.
XML Sitemap
A sitemap is an overview of all (important) pages of a website. A sitemap provides three important advantages. With it you indicate to Google:
- Which pages you have
- How often they are changed
- How much priority they have according to you.
A sitemap also shows how many alternative language versions a web page has. The search engine can thus find and understand the website. Generating a sitemap is quite simple. If you have a CMS, the sitemap is probably already present. If not, you can create a sitemap via http://www.xml-sitemaps.com.
In addition, the sitemap contains valuable information for a search engine such as: when the page was last updated, how often the page has been changed and whether alternative language versions of the page are available.
HTML sitemap
The HTML sitemap is especially for visitors. This sitemap is not necessary when the structure is clear. Sometimes it is used when the website has become very large. The visitor thus gets an index of the website and can navigate with it.
