Daniel Scocco here and this is the Daily Blog Tips newsletter.
Today I want to talk with about the importance of having an HTML
sitemap on your websites. It can do wonders to your search engine
optimization.
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First things first, what is an HTML sitemap? It is an actual page
of your website that outlines the complete structure of your site,
and that links to all the important pages on your site.
If you want to see an example, check the "Archives" section of my
blog here: http://www.dailyblogtips.com/archives/
I call it "Archives", but that is nothing more than an HTML sitemap,
because it outlines the structure of all the posts I have published
there month by month, and it also links to all of them.
Now it is important to not confuse an HTML sitemap with an XML one.
An XML sitemap also outlines the structures of your site, but the
XML format is understood by search engine bots only. If you visit
an XML sitemap you will just see a bunch of code.
XML sitemaps are useful if you are having crawling problems on your
site. That is, if search engine bots are not indexing your pages
correctly. If you are not having such problems, however, having
an XML sitemap is not necessary.
The HTML sitemap, on the other had, can be very useful no matter
what. First of all because it is useful for human visitors, as it
allows them to find any page within your site quickly.
Second, and most important, HTML sitemaps represent a very good way
to distribute your link juice and PageRank among the pages of your
site.
Ideally you want to have all the pages linking to the HTML sitemap
and the HTML sitemap linking back to all the pages (you can exclude
non important pages like your Privacy Policy or contact page if
you want). One way to accomplish this is to put a link to the HTML
sitemap on the main navigation menu or on the footer of your site.
Finally, here is a hot tip that very few people know: getting
external backlinks pointing to your HTML sitemap is very good for
SEO. Why? Because that link juice will pass directly to all
the pages on your site. If you get a backlink pointing to an
internal page (e.g., a blog post) it will need to pass through at
least one hop before it passes juice to other pages. Links to the
HTML sitemap, on the other hand, pass juice directly to all other
pages on your site.
The next time you do a guest post, therefore, consider pointing
the byline link to your HTML sitemap instead of your homepage.
If you are using WordPress and want to create an HTML
sitemap like mine, just search on Google for "SGR Clean Archives."
That is the name of the plugin that creates the sitemap for you.
If you want to become a master of search engine optimization you
should check my Online Profits training program. We have two SEO
modules there, covering the A to Z of search engines. The lessons
were written by two world-class SEOs too: Michael Gray and Hamlet
Batista. Here is the link if you want to join:
Talk to you soon,
Daniel Scocco
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2972 Columbia St. Suite # 8161 - Torrance, CA 90503 - US
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