If your website uses standard, traditional links, i.e., <a href=”http://www.yourdomain.com/page.html”> [...]]]> Learned something about site maps while uploading our new website BodyBuildingFitnessProgram.com the other day – and want to pass it along. What I learned is in reference to the usefulness of an XML site maps and how the internal links are seen when generating a site map. 

If your website uses standard, traditional links, i.e., <a href=”http://www.yourdomain.com/page.html”>  - not a problem. You can build a site map using the Free Site Map Builder we previously discussed without any trouble. However, if you are using drop down links ( maybe you want to have categories ) - these links will not be read by the site map builder. A sample of a drop down menu is shown below. In this sample, there would be two (2) categories with drop-down links. Category 1 has 2 links; Category 2 has 4 links.

<form name=”jump1″>

<select name=”menu” onChange=”location=document.jump1.menu.options[document.jump1.menu.selectedIndex].value;” value=”GO”>

<option value=”">Category 1

<option value=”http://www.yourdomain.com/Cat1Page1.html”>Page 1</option>

<option value=”http://www.yourdomain.com/Cat1Page2.html”>Page 2</option>

</select></form>

<form name=”jump2″>

<select name=”menu” onChange=”location=document.jump2.menu.options[document.jump2.menu.selectedIndex].value;” value=”GO”>

<option value=”">Category 2

<option value=”http://www.yourdomain.com/Cat2Page1.html”>Page 1</option>

<option value=”http://www.yourdomain.com/Cat2Page2.html”>Page 2</option>

<option value=”http://www.yourdomain.com/Cat2Page3.html”>Page 3</option>

<option value=”http://www.yourdomain.com/Cat2Page4.html”>Page 4</option>

</select></form>

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What can you do if you want to use drop down links AND have an XML site map?

It’s quite easy – simply build an HTML site map. You can easily create a single HTML site map page where each page (file name) inside the website is linked to using traditional HTML code links. Once you’ve created the site map page, place a link to the site map on the Index page and upload both pages. Now when you submit your website ( with the drop down menus ) to the XML site map builder, it will read the HTML site map (from the link on the home page) and build the XML map based on the link information there.

Conclusion

While using drop down menus can make for a cleaner looking page, it does nothing for building a site map. You will need to have a separate HTML site map. In all honesty, you should have an HTML site map on every website regardless if you are using drop down menus or not.