These 5 key considerations in creating your sitemap will ensure your new website will be thoughtfully organized and function at its best. Full article: webenertia.com/insights About us: We are a Silicon Valley-based website design agency that helps B2B clients build and accelerate their web, brand, and digital marketing by providing expert, trusted, data-driven solutions that deliver results. Our agency prides itself on delivering compelling narratives, thoughtful experiences, measurable benchmarks, and cutting-edge technology to support your brand story and website strategy. Follow us for more industry tips and insights.

1. WebEnertia > Insights
WEBSITE SITEMAPS: 5 KEY
CONSIDERATIONS WHEN
MAPPING YOUR CONTENT

2. SITEMAPS ARE VITAL
TOOLS TO ENSURE YOUR
DIGITAL PRESENCE WILL
BE ORGANIZED AND
FUNCTION AT ITS BEST.
Looking to rebuild a new website from scratch or refine an existing one?

3. WebEnertia,Inc. 3
Sitemaps Found in Web Design
Correctly Approaching Visual Sitemaps
- Business Goals
- Content Audit
- Personas
- Content Types
- CMS Implementation
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5KeyConsiderationsWhenMappingYourContent
TableofContents

4. There are multiple kinds of sitemaps referenced in web design, and
each one serves a different audience and function.

5. 5KeyConsiderationsWhenMappingYourContent
Sitemaps Found in Web Design
• Improving search engine visibility and SEO by ensuring search engines crawl and index your website through including a list of URLs listed in
an XML sitemap file
Types of Sitemaps
XML Sitemap
• Grown less common outside of larger websites and acts as a digital outline of a site’s architecture to visitors
• Static navigation aids provide means of quickly finding different pages
HTML Sitemap
• Defines the structure and scope of a digital project
• An effective and broadly accepted method of website planning between design firms and their clients
• Provides an illustration of a website’s structure, delivering insights into user flow, information architecture, and content strategy
Visual Sitemap

6. The differing expectations and audiences for each platform should be
both understood and explored.

7. 5KeyConsiderationsWhenMappingYourContent
Correctly Approaching Visual Sitemaps

8. 5KeyConsiderationsWhenMappingYourContent
Correctly Approaching Visual Sitemaps
• How can it best serve your organization’s needs?
• You and your design team must evaluate what types of content are best suited to reach your targets
• Once your organization has articulated the business goals for the website, then the work can begin on ensuring your content are targeted
toward achieving them
1. Business Goals
Connect Content Planning to Website Objectives

9. 5KeyConsiderationsWhenMappingYourContent
Correctly Approaching Visual Sitemaps
• Evaluate whether all existing content will be consistent with the new website redesign plan
• Some material will need to be rewritten, while other web pages may need to be deleted
• Outdated content can impact your SEO rankings under the wrong terms and attract an unexpected audience
• Costs can be reflected by not having to migrate page after page of outdated content
2. Content Audit
Making Your Site Build More Efficient

10. 5KeyConsiderationsWhenMappingYourContent
Correctly Approaching Visual Sitemaps
3. Personas
Design Your Site for 3 Primary Audiences

11. 5KeyConsiderationsWhenMappingYourContent
Correctly Approaching Visual Sitemaps
• The more detailed your efforts are the better your information architecture can target its buyer personas
• Avoid grouping all site content under a general heading like “blogs”
• Every post should be broken out as articles, infographics, white papers, podcasts, etc.
• Surface relevant content as it’s applicable to your website
4. Content Types
Label and Categorize to Improve User Experience

12. 5KeyConsiderationsWhenMappingYourContent
Correctly Approaching Visual Sitemaps
• Be mindful of the capabilities of your content management system and how well it organizes content types
• Modern CMS platforms can deliver customizable menus as well as the taxonomy and tagging tools to execute your redesigned website
structure
• Be sure your CMS tool can implement changes as your visual sitemap forms an effective strategy
5. CMS Implementation
Designing Within Your Platform Capabilities

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webenertia.com/insights/how-to-create-visual-sitemap-strategy/