Having a sitemap for your website is important. Most people think they are more complicated than they actually are. As an example, you can view the site map for this site here: www.do-it-yourself-seo.com/sitemap

As you can see, it's really just a list of links to all the main pages of the site. You can go as in-depth as you want. For my sitemap, I included a list of the SEO FAQ subjects for convenience. When users show up at my sitemap, they are usually looking for something. This way, I can show them as much as possible in one instance, so the page they are looking for is easier to find.

The only thing you have to be careful about is the amount of links on a page. Try to keep the amount of links per page to under 100. Google specifically warns against having more than 100 links. To Google, a massive amount of links can mean link farming or spamming links for link-building purposes. Obviously getting negative attention from Google will impact your website negatively. So, if you have a larger-than-normal website and you would like to list all (or most of) your pages, it might be a good idea to split your sitemap up over several pages, however many is necessary. Personally, I don't like to get anywhere near to 100 links per page. So to be safe, try to keep your links well below the 100 link mark.

A sitemap has more than just one important function. Not only does a sitemap allow your website visitors to easily access all of your website's pages on a single page (or more, as we discussed), it also makes your website more accessible to search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. If you want to make your website as accessible and easily navigated as possible for both humans and search engines, a sitemap is an absolute necessity.

On this website, I have also made my "404 Not Found" page function as a sitemap. Basically, if someone types in the wrong address or (god forbid) there is a broken link somewhere on my website, instead of having a blank "404 Not Found" page and having to press the back button in your browser, you'll see a sitemap. It will say, "Page Not Found" and include the following text:

"We’re sorry, but there is no web page that matches your entry. You may have typed the address incorrectly, or the page may no longer exist. You may want to try again with a different web page address, or see if you can find the page you were looking for below."

Obviously the sitemap (list of links to the different pages on my website) is listed below the above statement. I find that this makes a website much more helpful and usable. If someone looks on the sitemap page, they will be able to find whatever they were looking for. Also, if someone somehow finds my "404 Not Found" page, they'll also have a sitemap to depend on.

With every subject of SEO, I find myself repeating words like "usable" and "helpful". Honestly, if you ever have a question about SEO and are not sure how to implement a facet of your SEO, always choose the option that is more helpful to your visitors. Chances are that 99% of the time, what's good for your visitors is good for the search engines and ultimately, your website.