Visual Sitemap
What is a visual sitemap?
A visual sitemap is the graphical representation of the structure of a site.
Why visual sitemaps matter for SEO
A visual sitemap is an essential information architecture (IA) step that can visually expose difficult-to-crawl content and help refine a site’s navigation and overall structure before and after it’s built.
Visual sitemap tips
- Avoid creating a flat site where all pages reside off the domain’s root.
- Make the site structure hierarchical. Use descriptive folders for sections and categories for posts.
- Focus on query keywords and intent. Avoid creating a broad and nondescript hierarchy. Instead, consider the search queries you want to rank for and apply them to the sitemap structure.
- Make all pages discoverable from the homepage. Search engine crawlers and people should access all pages within 1-5 clicks from the homepage.
- Avoid creating pages that are difficult to find. Don’t create a site structure where content is difficult to find, orphaned, or relies on XML sitemaps for discovery.
Visual sitemap resources
Mind-mapping apps
Diagramming apps
Written by Jon Henshaw, published on , and last updated on .