This guide is brought to you by Zen Flowchart, the simplest flowchart maker.
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A website's sitemap is a kind of blueprint for the site's pages. It provides a bird's eye view for web crawlers, search engines, and people who surf the web. A good sitemap will provide an overview of all parts of the site so that visitors can find what they are looking for quickly.
And website sitemap is the best tool to represent visually a website's sitemap. You can discover more flow chart examples in our complete collection of flowchart examples and templates.
What Is A Website Flowchart?
A flowchart is a visual representation of complex ideas, systems, or algorithms. The tool lends itself to a wide range of fields. A website flowchart (or a sitemap) is among the most common usages.
By following the science of flowcharts, sitemaps shape the outline and details of a website. With a clear structure, the content will be more accurate and easily searchable. Plus, users can stay focused on their target while having to tend to many project stages when using a sitemap.
This diagramming tool assists in organizing and clarifying information to remove unnecessary parts, which is also beneficial in preparing for later additions. Thanks to these advantages, sitemaps make capable assistants for products and content teams to improve their user experience.
Advantages And Disadvantages Of A Website Flowchart
Pros
For Website Owners
- A website flowchart can act as a web design project tracker. It provides users with an overview of the entire internet site. That way, they will figure out what area needs adjustments or which department has made progress. The number of broken links across the web will also decrease with the help of this tool.
- Users can plan regular content refreshes to maintain the competitive edges of their sites. The products will appear more appealing to the consumer and achieve a high search engine ranking as a result.
- More people having access to the internet page leads to increasing demand for its content. Therefore, sitemaps bring more input and collaboration opportunities, which boosts the development of a new business or initiative.
- When the team makes a sitemap, they can keep it as a document for the system, saving it for future use.
For Users
- The visualizing method demonstrates the relationship among parts of the internet site, making it more straightforward.
The online flowcharts help the reader understand the service or products that the team wants to offer by clarifying content themes and highlights. In other words, the communication between the two parties is enhanced.
- A high position in the search ranking means readers can approach the webpage easily.
- Another advantage of this tool is streamlining the conversion funnel. The conversion funnel is the path a potential user takes through Internet advertising that navigates a website to make a purchase.
If the funnel consists of too many steps, people might get impatient and lose interest. The website's clear structure can be achieved with ease using a website flowchart. This way, consumers can take fewer steps to achieve their aim.
Cons
- A detailed diagram for existing content requires a lot of effort in researching and collecting information. In case the web is too complex, it is even harder to put the details into different shapes. Therefore, the making process of this chart takes up a significant amount of time.
- If there is a change in the project and the team has to alternate another process, they will need to make the chart again, which means the work put in creating the previous one will go to waste.
How To Create A Website Flowchart?
Preparation And Notes
Determine The Page’s Purpose And Goal
A good web needs to focus on a certain point and be easy to navigate.
When a team intends to make a diagram for one, they should write the ultimate goal on a piece of paper. Then divide it into smaller steps with specific requirements. The flowchart of website will be a map to lead them in the right way, accomplishing every target.
Add The Site’s Wireframes And Decide The Flow
A possible way to build a web flowchart is using a site’s wireframe. It includes the basic boxes and lines to show the connection among pages.
Users can also take the images from the shape library to assemble a quick mock-up. Either way, they must make sure that the diagram will navigate the customers accurately and there are arrows to indicate the flow.
Find Duplicate Parts And Mark It For Review
Use the number labels on each page to arrange them in the order of highest to lowest relevance. With this clarity, the project manager can locate similar content and highlight them to perfect the web.
Simplify The Conversion Funnel
After the sitemap has all the necessary elements, designers need to take a final look at it and identify duplicate processes. As mentioned above, the act of removing them will shorten the user journey. A customer touchpoint map is also advisable in this step.
Share The Chart Cross-Functionally
It takes various stages to produce a complete webpage, including launching, auditing, and redesigning.
Many people of different departments participate in the process: from designers, project managers, copywriters to salespeople. Thus, the chart must be available to everyone so that the cross-functional team members can keep track of the target and progress.
Detailed Steps
- List all the content included. In this step, users need to break down the project as detailed as possible. The more thorough the steps are, the easier it is to categorize them.
- Put the details into elements and symbols. There is a table of standard flowchart shapes to ensure people pick the right one for each type of process.
- Connect the elements with arrows. The use of arrows throughout the diagram must be consistent.
- Review and refine the chart. This is the step where users take a final look at the diagram and get rid of the remaining flaws to have a perfect flowchart of website.
A website flowchart / sitemap can be created quite easily with Zen Flowchart's website flowchart tool.
