FREE 10+ Site Map Samples in PDF | DOC

Visual site maps let you see at a glance how a website will be laid out, including the hierarchy of elements and relationships between content and pages.

Visual site maps let you see at a glance how a website will be laid out, including the hierarchy of elements and relationships between content and pages.

10+ Site Map Samples

1. Water Falls Site Map

2. Immunization Site Map

3. Sample Site Map

4. Simple Site Map

5. College Campus Site Map

6. Site Plan and Vicinity Map

7. Park Site Map

8. Site Map Example

9. School Site Map

10. Hospital Site Map

11. Storage Site Map

What is a sitemap?

A sitemap, or XML sitemap, is a list of different pages on a website. XML is short for “extensible markup language,” which is a way to display information on a site. A site map, or sitemap, lists the pages, videos and other files within your website and describes the relationship between them. Sitemaps are meant to help search engines like Google find, crawl and index all your website’s content.

Like the blueprints for a building, a visual sitemap helps you picture the content, hierarchy and navigation of a website. Visual sitemaps are generally in the form of a hierarchical diagram.

Just as a blueprint is more functional than beautiful, a visual sitemap serves several important functions in web development, including:

• Establishing sections of website and navigation
• Explaining relationships between sections or content
• Enabling designers and developers to see duplicate sections or gaps in content

How to Make a Site Map

1. Lay Out Your Content Ideas

The first step to making a fully-functional site map is laying out all the content ideas for your website. At this stage, it’s okay to do a huge brainstorm and think about all of the things you could ever want to include on your site — you’ll have time to refine your ideas later. You can drag and drop a rectangle onto the editor page for each piece of content or content category you’d like to include. Then, you can easily reorganize and rearrange them.

With all your ideas on the page, evaluate each from the perspective of your user. How will each piece of content help the user or support your business? Start grouping your ideas into categories and subcategories, removing anything that doesn’t support your users as you go.

Also look for places to combine your ideas. If you have two very similar ideas, could they both be supported by one page on your site?

2. Identify the Categories and Subcategories for Your Site

Now it’s time to consider what all this content will look like to a new visitor on your site. Using the groups you started to pull together in step 1, identify the primary categories and organize the content under them.

This is also a good time to introduce a key or legend to keep your site map organized. For example, your homepage might be a circle, and each category might be a square.

3. Add Content and Data to the High-Level Structure

Clearly label each category and start adding more data to each item. Adding the URL for your page is a great way to start structuring the technical elements of your site as you go.

You can also add annotations for details like which pages you intend to use in marketing, which pages will include video content, or which pages will require a form fill for the user to access.

This is also a good time to build out and define your legend. For example, a different color or dotted lines could indicate content you want to add later.

4. Refine Your Site Map

You should have a pretty serviceable diagram at this point, so it’s time to put it to the test. Here are a few exercises that can help ensure you’re meeting your goal with this site map.

Make Pretend User Journeys

Take any user profiles you have and ask yourself how these people would navigate the site. Come up with questions customers might have and map out how they’d find the answer to that question. What are the sticking points? Where would they have a hard time knowing what to do? These are spots you might need to reorganize.

 

5. Share the Site Map

Beyond creating an organization plan for your project, having a site map example for what you want to build can help your team collaborate. Share the site map with your web designers, writers, freelancers, and leadership team to give everyone a clear picture of what you’re going to make.

FAQs

To help you get started making a sitemap for your website, download our free sample templates above to use as your guide!