Site Map

The sitemap serves as the “backbone” of any website in the internet primarily because it points the visitors on the general layout and picture of your website, thus, giving them a clearer navigational structure as they visit your website. On the other hand, a website without a good sitemap structure only gives an impression of poor website management.

Technically speaking, even the different robots (Google Bots, Yahoo Bots, etc…) that crawl billions of pages everyday depends heavily on the sitemap of the websites by indexing the page titles, meta tags and now even the page contents. Without a good sitemap structure, indexing of the web pages will take some time making your website unseen and invisible over the internet. In short, the website you painstakingly develop becomes useless having no traffic at all.

Web Materials

Okay, that’s all about the importance of site map. Now, since site map is the “backbone of the website” like what I have said earlier, therefore all web materials such as the photos, articles, write-ups and what-have-you should be based on it. Again, site map. Get the drift?

For example, if you have an “About Us” page in your predefined site map then, you MUST have a write-up regarding what your company is all-about. It is simple as that. Another one is, if you have an “Events” page then, you should have updated photos of the events, articles about it or galleries to showcase those events in your events page.

However, be very aware that having an events page on your website that displays a “page under construction” is a No-No among web internet marketers because it only gives an impression among visitors that your online presence is not properly maintained. In effect, visitors will only have a notion that your brick-and-mortar business is not also properly managed. So, how can you remedy this one? Oh well, simply disable the menu/button leading to that “under construction page” while you are constructing the said page. It would be better that way than displaying that “page under construction”.

In the internet world, it would be better to have nothing to offer at all rather than giving outdated information because that is like telling your visitors not to come back anymore. It is like saying, “Hey, Move away! Thank you”. Indeed, do not tell the world that your “company flag” is already online but only to show them your inadequacies. What a waste, Right? It is counterproductive.

What Am I stressing here? Just like what I said to one of the esteemed managers I talked to, “content is king”. These days, the battle is no longer about backend development (although it still matter) but it is now more on the CONTENT.

The success of the website depends on the content – mint and updated information (photos, articles, etc, etc)

Before Web Development Starts

You have to prepare your web materials based on the site map that you have. When you gather for the web materials, you need to have EXCELLENT photos, articles and write-ups before you start your web development. We have to admit that, we can’t create anything of good value if we don’t have quality materials.

Gather your web team and assign them the task that is right fit for them. You should have a content writer, digital photographer, web designer, web developer and most of all, a project team leader that coordinates and makes follow-ups about the development of the project.

I would suggest that you let your manager/client to proof-read or check the quality of materials that you are about to use in order to have a seamless development along the process. So, if you have already started or about to start your web development but you have not done the gathering of excellent web contents, then, better stop.

Gather the materials first. I mean gather QUALITY materials.

Happy Web Content Hunting, folks!

Note: If you don’t have any web designer then gather the right materials based on your site map and ask someone to do it for you. It would be much worth your time and effort that way.