I questioned the importance of using an HTML sitemap earlier this week, the response following this strongly suggests that they do still have a major part to play as an SEO technique.

Here’s what the poll results showed:
67% Yes – All websites need a sitemap
7% Yes – But only for large websites
27% No

While I’m not entirely convinced this is essential for every website it’s difficult to argue with Vanessa Fox’s comment on Sphinn, especially as she used to work for Google!

“As a user, I don’t always want to navigate through to the page I’m after. I often go straight for the HTML sitemap so I can click directly on the page I’m looking for.

And the benefits of SEO are negated if the site provides a poor user experience, so I’m going with yes on the HTML sitemaps.”

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Kevin Gibbons is Founder/Director of Strategy at SEOptimise. Kevin is well known within the search industry as a blogger for sites such as Search Engine Land, Econsultancy and Search Engine Watch. Kevin is also a frequent SEO speaker at a number of conferences including Search Marketing Expo (SMX), Search Engine Strategies (SES), a4uexpo, SAScon and BrightonSEO.