A visual sitemap is basically an outline or flow-chart of all pages that make up a website. It shows the links on a web page and the relationship between them. If used properly, site mapping is a valuable tool for improving your site’s search engine rankings and boosting the overall user experience.
Read on for more reasons why you should create a visual sitemap as the basis of your new website design.
Clarify your site’s goal
Websites without focus are more likely to leave visitors asking, “What brought me here?” You don’t wish that for anyone coming to your site.
A sitemap can clarify your site’s goal before you can even create content or start the web design process. By deciding what you are looking for and then mapping it out, you can ascertain how many pages your site needs and anything crucial that might be missing.
Streamline your conversion funnel
Want to make more money on your website? You must find ways to increase your conversions, whether that means driving visitors to the checkout page or getting them to sign up for your newsletter.
The secret to driving conversions is to reduce the steps from point A to point B in your conversion funnel. More steps and a visitor will likely leave without completing a sign-up or a purchase.
A sitemap can come in handy to help you figure out what steps to combine. It gives you an idea of what drives conversions by predicting which pages are the most and least effective.
Simplify internal linking
Good site mapping can also bring more traffic to your website. The visual map will help you determine when and where to add links to make it easier for users to navigate your site.
Improving user experience will also facilitate quicker navigation of your site structure by Google spiders. This will ultimately impact your site movements on search engine result pages and help your business rank higher.
Boost SEO
Another way a visual sitemap improves your site performance is by helping you identify the appropriate keywords to target on each page. With it, you can easily determine the quality and quantity of keywords to use on each page. This is vital in helping you identify the pages that need renaming or further optimization.
Simplify communication
Are you looking to impress your web design client? Showing them the current structure of their website, areas that need improvements, and how you will do it will keep both of you on the same page.
Besides, everyone in their team, from the project manager and content creators to marketers, can see the strategy right in front of them through a sitemap. This means better questions and feedback within the team or to and from users.
Conclusion
Building a website involves a lot of steps but creating a visual sitemap is often overlooked and underrated. Even if your time is limited, it’s worth spending a few minutes with your team to figure out the goal, how pages relate, and what needs to be removed from the site.
Fortunately, there’s no shortage of excellent site mapping tools today to make your work easier. This includes WriteMaps, a popular tool used by thousands of web designers today. Be sure to check it out if you’re looking to add professionalism to your work going forward.