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[Force7]

Hi,

 

I am currently doing a redesign on an older website and actually have two different sitemap pages, one static (our-sitemap.php) and one generated with software and resides as (sitemap.xml) that is submitted to Google.

 

The old static (our-sitemap.php) was designed for visitors because they can see it broken down into sections. Over time this became unorganized because we would add a page and forget to add it to the sitemap. I have now cleaned this all up and designed a nice page that is appealing.  Basically looks like color coded tables for each section, there are approximately 250 links to individual pages in these 20 tables and will grow.

 

 

I only use the (sitemap.xml) page for submission through Google Webmaster tools. This is not linked from any page because it is '"not a pretty site" and not helpful to customers.

 

The static our-sitemap.php page is linked from our footer on each page.   Every page in the website will be listed here, (actually we will split it into two, "our-sitemap.php"  will contain all the pages on our website and "our-sitemap2.php" will contain links to all blog posts. Once again Organized. 

 

 

Is having it set up this way seem SEO Friendly as well as best for a user experience for customers?

 

Thanks in advance!

Force7

 

[qwerty]

Yes, this is standard operating procedure these days. The XML sitemap is just for search engines. It isn't actually necessary unless you find that there are issues with indexation, or you'd like to stress that some pages ought to be crawled more often than others (and while the file allows you to make that indication, it doesn't mean a search engine will pay any attention to it).

 

I think that with the exception of very small sites, the XML sitemap is worth having, even if only to compare the number of submitted pages to the number of indexed pages in Webmaster Tools.

 

The sitemap that you link to from your footer serves a completely different purpose. While a search engine spider is welcome to crawl the page and discover URLs from its links, it's really there to help users see the structure and content of the site, as an alternative to the navigation provided by the menu.