Re: Are Site Maps still a "best practice"?

If i remember correctly, Jared Spool said that about site maps because many
people were adding them to their site as a solution to major
navigation/search problems.

Spool also said this:
"Site maps have their place and we're not suggesting that you dump them
entirely. Search engine spiders crawl through the site map to find the pages
that are hard to find otherwise on your site, so you wouldn't want to
eliminate them unless those pages are now accessible some other way."

I believe site maps should still be used. They should definitely not be the
only way people navigate your site, but there is still a small percentage of
people who may go to this when for one reason or another, they cant find
what they are looking for on your site. To me, its like adding a "last
resort" for customers to stop them from abandoning your site from a
frustration that no one anticipated.

Thanks,
Carrie


On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 9:35 AM, Zoey Kroll <[email protected]> wrote:

> I'm wondering if I should start including site maps in my navigation
> recommendations, as a best practice. I had been under the impression
> that a well-designed site shouldn't need a site map. A client is now
> asking whether to include it or not. From a quick search, I couldn't
> find any usability studies from 2009 or 2010 on the subject. Most
> sites recommended site maps along the 'can't hurt' motto -- though
> these do add one more item on the 'to create and maintain' list.
>
> Nielson's '08 study indicates that 7% of people use it, and that it's
> still a useful feature that should be included. http://www.useit.com/
> alertbox/sitemaps.html
> Jared Spool believes it is often a "design cop-out" that addresses
> symptoms, but not the root of the issue. Does anyone have more
> current research, or thoughts on this?
>
> Thanks,
> Zoey
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