A sitemap of a website can be described as a flow chart diagram, blueprint, or organized list of web pages in a specific domain. Its purpose is to help search engines locate, crawl, and catalog the content of your website. According to Forbes, creating a sitemap can be a critical component of SEO for doctors or any business. Keep reading to find out why no medical SEO campaign is complete without this tool.
Benefits of a sitemap
When it comes to website design for doctors, even well-optimized sites can benefit from adding a sitemap.
Quickly communicates changes with search engines
In order to improve your rankings, it is helpful to add and change web content frequently. The issue with doing so is it takes time for changes to webpages to be indexed by search engines. If your practice is regularly adding or modifying content or critical information such as services offered, a sitemap can communicate those changes with the search engines quickly, allowing them to be indexed faster.
Prioritizes content
A sitemap allows you to not only categorize your web pages but also prioritize them. Pages with your most critical content will be crawled and indexed by search engines more quickly.
Provides vital information about your site visitors
A sitemap report can tell you which sources your traffic is coming from, as well as the keywords used to find your website. It also displays errors so you can fix issues you may not have otherwise been aware of.
Elements to include in your sitemap
Sitemaps are as diverse as webpages. While no two will be the same, there are some common features to include that can dramatically increase the effectiveness of your sitemap.
Descriptions of submitted links
Simply providing the links is step one. To optimize your sitemap, include the following descriptions:
- Headers
- Introductory text
- Title tags
- Meta descriptions
Using a sitemap generator can save an immense amount of time in this area compared to entering all the data manually.
Critical pages
Pages with the highest quality content or the most vital information should be included. It is not necessary to list on your sitemap pages with duplicate content, old or irrelevant content, or low-quality content. Adding pages like these can prevent search engines from differentiating between your most valuable pages and those less likely to attract quality visitors.
Blogs
If you have blogs on your practice’s website, you may be tempted to exclude them from a sitemap because they do not typically contain information about your practice specifically. However, it is often keywords in a blog that searchers find first and follow to your website. Allowing a crawler to index your blog posts can improve the effectiveness of your keywords and subsequently your ranking.
Attract more visitors with website optimization
You may have a well-designed website, but Doctor Genius knows it takes much more than a quality design to attract your target visitors. We offer everything from hosting solutions to online reputation management to website optimization. Speak with a trained team member today to discover more ways we can improve the performance of your website. Let us help you start attracting more visitors to your website and patients to your practice.
Doctor Genius, located at 16800 Aston Street, Suite 270, Irvine, CA 92606, provides a range of services for practice success. We seek to meet our clients’ needs by providing a variety of marketing, SEO, practice optimization tools, and coaching to transform the healthcare experience. Though we work to provide the most accurate information, the content found on this website is solely intended for entertainment purposes. Therefore, we cannot guarantee that the information provided is entirely correct. You may not use the information on this site to cure, prevent, or diagnose a perceived medical issue. If you have healthcare-related needs, please speak directly to a healthcare professional. Never self-perform medical treatments discussed on this website. All images displayed are also for entertainment purposes only, and personal experiences may differ. Please note that the business tactics mentioned on this site might not be applicable to your industry or practice.
