Tag Archives: structure

Monday in the HTMLab

X Marks the Sitemap

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We’ve probably all visited a site that was hard to navigate. You got down into the categories and mini-categories and couldn’t find your way back up to other categories…quite frustrating.

As site designers, we may think our site does not need any sort of overarching structure, but that’s where our intimate knowledge of our creation does us no good. We have to remember that our site must be navigable to those who do not know its ins and outs, all its nuanced pages. An easily-navigable site is a user-friendly site.

What’s one way we can make users’ lives a lot easier? By building a sitemap–one page that lists all the site’s individual pages, organized by whatever system makes the most sense for your site (monthly archives, categorical archives, etc.).

Why Make a Sitemap?

Sitemaps are beautiful things–they make it easier for users to:

  • Browse your site
  • Find single pages without having to click through navigation every time
  • Know at a glance all the pages you have on your site (this can be very helpful for you, too!)

To Make a Sitemap:

  1. Go to your site’s directory, OR visit your live website.
  2. Write down all the filenames for your content files, OR copy and paste each address from the address bar as you visit each page of your site.
  3. Associate each page’s title with its filename.

    Example: If you have a page called “aboutme.html,” but it’s called “Learn More about the Webmaster”, then you’d title it “Learn More about the Webmaster” instead of “aboutme.html”.

  4. Make all these addresses and titles into working links, and link to them all in one big list, organized by content type, category, month it was posted, or however else you choose. Just make sure it’s sorted!
  5. Format this sitemap into a table (yes, a table–this is tabular data, after all), with headings and subheadings to show users clearly which sections are which in your sitemap. See examples of formatting a sitemap in the next section.

And you’re done! All you’ll need to do at this point is upload it, and every time you add a page, delete a page, or edit a title, edit the sitemap as necessary.

Some Examples of Sitemaps

The following pictures show some of the sitemaps I’ve created for my sites:


This is for Skies over Atlas, my City of Heroes site–as such, it is sorted by content category rather than by post date or by length of article, so that people can navigate to what they want to learn about quickly and easily.


This one is for The Gamer’s Repose, my gaming site, and it is sorted by game name and content type.


For my main site, WithinMyWorld.org, I didn’t need to sort it by content category so much since I had a lot of single pages that stood alone. So I just divided it up into “single pages” and “sections,” and then further delineated from there.

Automatic Sitemap Creators

Since my sites are small, making sitemaps manually is not much of a problem for me. But if you’ve got too large or too dynamic a site to do the manual sitemap (or you don’t want to be bothered with keeping it updated all the time), you can also use some of the following automatic sitemap generators, listed below:

XML-Sitemaps.com (need Google Webmaster account)
Codeplex.com’s Sitemap Generator (is software that needs to be uploaded to your server)
Doing an Automatic Sitemap in WordPress: Tutorial
BuildASiteBookmarks.com’s Sitemap Generator

Summary

To keep users of our websites happy, a sitemap can be just the thing to pull all of our content together in one place, where it’s easy to find that one page they’re looking for. It’s one way we can make browsing our sites easier, which means repeat visitors for us and a positive browsing experience for users. A true win-win!

Monday in the HTMLab

WordPress: Doing Pages versus Posts

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On a typical WordPress blog (and possibly other blogging software as well), you have the option of doing Posts or Pages for your content. But what’s the real difference?

Many beginning bloggers do not know, and I was confused when I first started using WordPress. “My posts are going to appear on web pages, so why do I need to bother using something called a ‘Page’ with a capital ‘P?'” I wondered.

So I set about learning the differences for myself. Here is what I discovered:

Pages

Pages are static–they occur outside “the Loop,” or the time-sensitive code that produces the Posts. Because they’re outside the normal blog post structure, they have to be accessed through the “Pages” links and sidebar modules instead of falling in chronological order with Posts.

Because they’re not in “the Loop,” Pages look kind of silly with a date on them. After all, you can’t find them by searching through the date-sensitive archive anyway. Also, Pages don’t usually have a need for the comments template, unlike Posts. If and when you design a custom blog theme, don’t just copy-paste your Posts template as your Page template–if you don’t want a date to show, and don’t want comments to be allowed on your Pages, remember to take out those bits of code before you publish.

I find that Pages are better for static information that isn’t time-sensitive like Posts tend to be. Content like your “About Me” page, a links page, an FAQ, or product information looks better on a Page and can be more easily accessed from anywhere on the site.

Posts

Unlike Pages, Posts happen within the time-sensitive framework of “the Loop,” at least in WordPress. Because they happen in “real time,” so to speak, having the date included as part of your Post template makes it possible to search for Posts through the Archives pages of your WordPress site. Apart from needing the date included, Posts also more than likely need a Comments template so that visitors can post replies.

Posts seem to be best for regular blog entries and time-sensitive information like site updates, rather than general site information like “About the Author,” or more static information like “Product Specs.” Also, since Posts are more searchable through the Archives pages, Posts are better for your main blog content.

Making the Choice

If you’re still confused about which format to put a certain block of content in, ask yourself the following questions about the content you’re working with:

“Does this content need to be readily available to users no matter how long it’s been since I published it?”
If yes, you likely need to put this content on a Page.

“Is this content only going to be relevant for a little while, and then fade into old news?”
If yes, you likely need to make it into a Post.

Summary

I hope this quick rundown of using Pages versus Posts has helped you figure out what type you need more of for your site. WordPress offers this diverse functionality as a way to help us bloggers and webmasters publish content–we just have to know how to make use of it!