A Site Map to Success

No matter how carefully you construct your navigational scheme, there will be some who can't figure it out. If your site is complex, a site map may be a good navigational tool of last resort. A site map is a page that presents your Web site in strict hierarchical order. No fancy stuff, just a list of every single page on your site, showing how they link together.

A site map may be a text outline or a graphic image map. A text site map might look something like this:

Widgets Inc. Home Page

 - Products



    - Consumer Widgets

       - Widget 4.0 for Windows

       - Widget Lite

       - Widget for Unix



    - Professional Widgets

       - Widget Gold Edition for Pros

       - Widget Silver Edition for Circus Clowns



 - About Widgets

    - Company History

    - Work for Widgets



 - Contact Widgets

    - Email Addresses

    - Telephone Directory

Every line of text above should be a hyperlink to the page. If you prefer, you can create an image map with a little box for each page. An image map is usually preferable, because it looks better and can better show the relationships among pages. The drawback is that it's harder to modify than a text site map.

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