Best Sitemap Examples: Guide To Master Sitemap Page Design

In this guide, we break down the different types of sitemaps, show some excellent sitemap examples, and give you 11 practical tips.

When designing a website, you usually start by planning out the information and how it fits together. This is where sitemaps come into play. They show the structure and content organization to the Google search engines and also help you arrange pages and navigation so that visitors can move around easily.

Another advantage is that you see how pages and sections relate, spot any missing or repetitive content, create a simple navigation system for visitors, set a framework for future development, and make your conversion process more efficient.

With this out of the way, we prepared some excellent XML and HTML sitemap examples and broke down 11 practical tips for keeping your sitemap in check.

What is a Sitemap?

When you’re trying to make your website more appealing to search engines like Google, sitemaps are super important. Basically, a sitemap is a file that acts as a guide for search engines. It tells them all about the pages on your website. This is really important because it helps search engines find and organize your site, making sure your content can be seen by people looking for it.

File Formats and Planning

Sitemaps come in two main types: XML and HTML (we’ll break them down later). XML sitemaps are made specifically for search engines. They give detailed info about each page, like when it was last updated and how often it changes. On the other hand, HTML sitemaps are easier for people to understand. They help plan your website’s structure and organize content in a visual way.

Content Organization and Benefits

One great thing about sitemaps is how they help organize content. They do more than just list pages. You can add stuff like images and videos, which helps Google understand what your media is about. This makes it easier for Google to show your content prominently in search results.

IKEA’s Sitemap, designed by Nisanth N.

This example is for a Food Delivery App by Vivek Anand. The sitemap also has a flow description.

The sitemap for a voting website by Ositadinma Nwaubani.

With this out of the way, let’s look at the two specific types of sitemaps: XML and HTML sitemaps in more detail.

What are XML Sitemaps?

XML sitemaps act like maps for search engines, guiding them through your website’s pages. They’re not meant for users; they’re all about helping search engines understand your site better. Here’s what you need to know:

If you’re new to creating XML sitemaps, here are some tools to consider:

To find your XML sitemap, you can check if it’s available at yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml, which is where it might be located.

XML Sitemap Examples

Now, let’s look at some XML sitemaps.

Walmart’s corporate XML sitemap is perfectly made for search engines to understand and index.

Google’s XML Sitemap

An example of an XML sitemap for Airbnb Careers, generated by Jetpack.

Linkedin Business’ XML sitemap.

 Framers Kitchen Hotel’s XML Sitemap

 

What are HTML Sitemaps?

An HTML sitemap is like a master list of all your important website pages, presented as an easy-to-read webpage. Here’s what you should know:

HTML sitemaps focus on users, giving them a clear view of your site’s layout and making it easy to move from page to page. They have URLs that look just like regular webpages, making them easy to use and integrate into your site, especially with plugins for platforms like WordPress. You can also use tools like Slickplan or Dynomapper for more customization.

HTML Sitemap Examples

To illustrate the theory, let’s look at some excellent HTML sitemap examples from live websites.

Sell at Amazon‘s HTML sitemap with multiple categories.

Apple’s sitemap makes it easy to explore the website depending on what users need.

htmlBurger’s sitemap, containing all main and secondary pages.

The HTML sitemap of Facebook, containing pages for Meta Business, Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and What’s App.

 

Sitemap vs Information Architecture

When it comes to website planning, there is a difference between information architecture (IA) and sitemaps. Here’s a breakdown of their roles:

The key differences can be broken down into the following:

Information Architecture (IA):

Sitemap:

This UX case study by Austine Okeh gives a good example of the differences between a sitemap VS an information architecture. From this standpoint, the sitemap shows the pages and their hierarchy, while the IA outlines every single section within a page.

The same goes for this IA and layout content design by Ifeoluwa Idowu.

 

11 Practical Tips for Keeping Your Sitemaps In Check

Before you make a sitemap, it’s a good idea to review your website for any technical problems that need fixing.

There are many site audit tools that can get the job done and examine your website for technical problems. These tools search for things like broken links, redirects that go in circles, and content that’s copied on different pages.

Needless to say, pages with these problems should not be in your sitemap, because they can confuse search engine bots and make them waste their time on your site. Note that these bots only have a limited amount of pages they can look at before moving on.

1. Include Page Priority

When you make an XML sitemap, give each page a priority level. This tells search engines which pages are most important for them to look at first. For example, if you have a homepage and some blog posts, you might say the homepage is very important (priority 1.0), while the blog posts are a bit less important (priority 0.5). This way, search engines know where to focus their attention first when crawling your site.

2. Indicate Change Frequency

In your XML sitemap, you can also tell search engines how often the content on each page changes. This helps search engines decide how often to check each page for updates. For instance, if you have a news website where things change every day, you’d say the news pages change daily. But if you have a page that hardly ever changes, like your contact page, you’d say it changes never or rarely. This helps search engines crawl your site more efficiently.

3. Avoid Noindex Pages

When you’re making your sitemap, don’t include pages that you’ve told search engines not to index. For example, if you have a page that you don’t want people to find through search engines, like a privacy policy or terms of service page, don’t include it in your sitemap. Including these pages can confuse search engines and make it harder for them to understand which pages you want them to show in search results.

4. Avoid Duplicate Content

Make sure your sitemap doesn’t include pages that are exactly the same or very similar. For instance, if you have two pages with almost identical content, like www.example.com/page1 and www.example.com/page1?lang=en, only include one of them in your sitemap. Having duplicate pages can confuse search engines and waste their time crawling the same content over and over again.

5. Use Multiple Sitemaps

If your website is really big, you might need more than one sitemap. For example, if you have thousands of products on your e-commerce site, you could have separate sitemaps for different product categories, like electronics, clothing, and accessories. This makes it easier for search engines to crawl and understand your site’s structure, especially if it’s large and complex.

6. Use a Dynamic Sitemap

A dynamic sitemap automatically updates whenever you add, change, or remove pages on your site. This is great for websites that are always changing, like news sites or blogs. With a dynamic sitemap, you don’t have to manually update it every time you make a change to your site. It keeps everything up-to-date for search engines to crawl efficiently.

7. List All Your Important Pages

Make sure your sitemap includes all the pages you want search engines to find and show in search results. For example, if you have important pages like your homepage, product pages, and contact page, make sure they’re all in your sitemap. If you leave out important pages, search engines might not index them, and people won’t find them in search results.

8. Make Your Sitemap Accessible

Put your sitemap where search engines can easily find it. For example, you can put your XML sitemap in your website’s main directory (like www.example.com/sitemap.xml) and include a link to it in your robots.txt file. This helps search engines quickly discover and crawl your sitemap, so they can index your site’s content faster and more accurately.

9. Don’t Include Redirects

If you’ve moved or deleted pages on your site and set up redirects, don’t include the old URLs in your sitemap. For example, if www.example.com/old-page now redirects to www.example.com/new-page, only include www.example.com/new-page in your sitemap. Including redirects in your sitemap can confuse search engines and make it harder for them to index your site properly.

10. Check Your Index Coverage

Keep an eye on how search engines are indexing your site by using tools like Google Search Console. For example, you can use the “Coverage” report in the Search Console to see which pages are indexed and which ones aren’t. This helps you identify any issues with your sitemap or site structure that might be affecting how search engines crawl and index your site.

11. Place the HTML Sitemap on Your Homepage

An HTML sitemap is a page on your website that lists all the links to your pages, making it easier for visitors to navigate your site. For example, you can create a page called “Site Map” and add it to your website’s footer or main menu. This helps visitors find what they’re looking for quickly and improves their overall experience on your site.

 

Alrighty, folks, that’s a wrap!

Creating a sitemap is essential, but it’s just the first step. To truly understand how well your website works for users, you need to test it with real people.

There are two popular methods for this: card sorting, where you see how users organize information, and tree testing, where you check how easy it is to navigate your site.

Keep in mind, that you’ll need actual users for these tests and any future checks you do during web development.

Hey, before you go, don’t forget to check out our other awesome articles on UI/UX design! We’ve got loads of tips and inspiration to help you create stunning designs that will blow your mind.

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