The site map is just what it says, a map to your website. At the top is your homepage (which is always titled “index.html”) with the next tier being all pages that can be linked to from your homepage. Creating a site map is as simple a deciding what links will be on your homepage; those links become the title of pages on the second tier. Each page on your second tier may have links specific to them and so on. Draw these relationships on paper, making a page for every link on every page until the line terminates.

Your site map is an important piece of your plan for building your website. Have it available as a reference throughout the entire build of your site and be sure to update it as changes occur. Including the file name for every page on your site map will allow you to set up your links on a page before the linked pages are created. Planning ahead is going to make building your site more efficient by eliminating errors and tedious work in the long run.