All good websites start with a blueprint. Developers call this a wireframe or sitemap t helps SERPs crawl and find your site). It doesn’t have to be an official document; it’s simply a vision for your site that’ll give both you and your developer(s) direction and a place to start. You can draw it on a whiteboard or use a tool like
Just like a business plan gives a potential investor insight into your goals and deliverables, a sitemap gives a developer an idea of what you’re picturing and the information needed to meet your vision. You can create your sitemap on your own or work with your developer(s).
Here are a few questions to ask yourself when planning your site:
- What individual pages do you want? What content will be on those pages?
- How can you organize those pages into categories? (These categories might represent your homepage menu — if it helps to think about it like that.)
- What is the hierarchy of pages on your site?
- How will the pages link together?
- What pages and categories are essential to your site and user experience, and which ones could be removed or combined?
Again, it’s a good idea to consult with other teams within your organization. If you have an SEO and/or content strategy team, their input will be critical in the linking structure and categorizing of your pages.