Setting Up a Site Map

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It may be tempting to just jump in and start writing pages and adding graphics here and there. But if you want to make a good impression and have folks stick around and actually use your site, you have to make it easy for them to get around.

If your site has more than two levels, give some thought as to how people will navigate around. They don't want to have to click on six or seven links to get to the one that interests them.

Look at what other sites are doing. What do you like about them? Well-organized content will probably be among the top reasons it attracts you. Make the important information prominent. Think in terms of levels. A couple of examples follow:

Publish your document as one long scrollable page with "jump points". (Diagram 1). A link back to the top of the page should be provided in each section of the story for ease of navigation.
Break you document into multiple pages with one HTML file for each page and a "top" summary page with links to each page within the section. (Diagram 2). This is the preferred method. Always provide a link back to the original menu from each document.

This one- or two-level map is sufficient for the initial meeting with Information Services.

At a later time (see Step 4: The Site Map) you can create a more detailed site map with several levels showing all the information you want to include and how a visitor might navigate around it. It can be written in outline form or use flow chart software to create a more formalized site map.

An outline might look like this:

I. New energy company home page

General information
Customer page
Aggregator page
Glossary page
Subscribers page
- Aggregator
- Non-residential
E-mail us page

II. Customer page

Index page
General Information
Aggregator Page
Glossary
Subscribers page
- Aggregator
- Non-residential
E-mail us page

III. Glossary page

General information
Customer page
Aggregator Page
Subscribers page
- Aggregator
- Non-residential
E-mail us page

Don’t forget to add a site map as a navigation option for visitors. It is simply a page with your site's main topics or "buttons" and a list of the pages of information underneath each topic. They are linked to the appropriate page. Visitors can see at a glance all the information and go directly to what they want without going through several levels of links.

Do not use "home" as a link to refer to your main ("index" or "default") page. If you wish to link back to your main ("index" or "default") page, use the name or description of your sub-site.

Do not use a link labeled "contact us" for your sub-site e-mail or contact information. Instead use, "to e-mail us" or "to contact Accounting Services."

Have you secured permission for any copyrighted photos, graphics, music, video, documents? Is the permission for Web use? Unless you are the author/creator, assume that all materials you plan to use are copyrighted until you check it out. The Information Resource Center can help you.