When you decide to go for a holiday, the first thing that comes to your mind is getting a map about that place. This will make it easier for you to move around and visit interesting places.
Same applies for your web site. For a first time visitor, your web site is an unknown place, and as you find signs in roads, you have to provide a way for this user to easily navigate around. Remember that for big complex web sites, like this one for example, one could easily get lost.
So, besides providing good navigation in your web site, you have to provide a Site Map.
It is good practice to have a link to the site map in all your pages. This will also act like an information desk in your web site.
It is important that you create a simple and understandable site map, which is easily understood by anyone. It must of course have good logic!
If you have a big web site, say containing 500 pages or more, try and do a high level site map as it will be impossible to include all pages. In this case, try to highlight your most important sections. If you did create your navigators correctly, then, your site visitors will navigate from one page to another without any problems. Still at any time, from any page, they can refer to the site map for further reference.
So, equally important is the site map as compared to your navigators.
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Your Web Site’s Site Map
