Why build a sitemap on your school website?
Getting your website seen by search engines (like Google) can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. This is where a sitemap comes in – it’s a super important, though often an overlooked part of managing your website. Think of a sitemap not just as a technical detail, but as a detailed map for your website. It guides those search engine “robots” (called crawlers) and helps them understand what your website is all about and how it’s organised therefore making it easier to present in a results page.
What is a Sitemap?
Simply put, a sitemap is a file that lists all the important pages on your website that you want search engines to find and include in their search results. Imagine it like the table of contents for a really big book, but for your entire website! There are two main types:
- XML Sitemaps: These are specifically made for search engines. They’re written in a special code (XML) and tell search engines extra details about each page, such as when it was last updated, how often it changes, and how important it is compared to other pages on your site.
- HTML Sitemaps: These are lists of links that people can read and use. While not as crucial for search engine optimisation (SEO) as they once were, an HTML sitemap can still be helpful for visitors trying to navigate very large or complicated websites.
What are the benefits of having a sitemap?
1. Helps Search Engines Find and Understand Your Pages
This is probably the biggest reason to have a sitemap. Search engine bots explore the internet by following links from one page to another. Even though they’re incredibly smart, they can sometimes miss pages – especially on brand-new websites, sites with confusing layouts, or pages that are buried deep within your site. A sitemap clearly tells search engines: “Hey, here are all the pages I want you to know about!”
2. Gives Visibility to “Lost” Pages
“Orphan pages” are pages on your website that don’t have any links pointing to them from other pages on your site. Without these internal links, search engine crawlers would never be able to discover these pages. A sitemap gives search engines a direct way to find and index these otherwise isolated bits of content, making sure no valuable information goes unseen.
3. Improves Your Website’s Search Engine Ranking
By helping search engines find and understand your pages better, sitemaps directly boost your SEO efforts. Indexed pages mean more chances to rank for the right search terms, which leads to more people finding your website through search engines. It’s a basic but essential part of making your website technically sound for SEO.
How to Create and Submit a Sitemap?
Most modern website builders and content management systems such as WordPress (this is what we use!) have plugins (like Yoast SEO or XML Sitemap Generator for Google) that automatically create and update XML sitemaps for you. Realsmart have the plugin XML Sitemap Generator available to use in your plugin library. All you need to do is activate the plugin and the settings page will present you with the URL for your sitemap, it really is simple!
Once you have your sitemap URL, you’ll need to tell search engines about it using their special tools:
- Google Search Console: This is the main place to submit your sitemap to Google. Here is their useful guide on uploading a new sitemap!
- Bing Webmaster Tools: For submitting your sitemap to Bing.
Make sure to regularly check your sitemap in these tools for any errors, ensuring that search engines can easily access and process it.
We hope this post helps you to go out there and create a sitemap for your school website!
Team realsmart