Sitemap planning

Website projects can start with design, with the sitemap drawn on a whiteboard in the first workshop and never revisited. That works for a small site. For a site with hundreds of pages, several audiences and a content team who will publish for years, a planned sitemap is the foundation that everything else rests on. It settles the scope of the build, gives writers a list of pages to fill and gives developers the addresses they need for templates and redirects.

What sitemap planning covers

Page list. Every page the site will have at launch, each with a working title, a one-line purpose and the content type it uses (for example, service page, guide, form, listing).

Hierarchy. How pages nest into sections and subsections. We aim for a structure people can scan, with each level offering a manageable number of distinct choices. Where the hierarchy has to go deep, we plan other routes to the deepest pages so nobody has to click through five levels.

Addresses. A proposed URL for every page. Google's guidance recommends readable words rather than "long ID numbers", hyphens rather than underscores, and consistent letter case because "Google Search's URL handling is case sensitive". We apply those rules and keep addresses short enough to read aloud.

Content notes. For each page, what it must contain, who owns it and which existing content (if any) it replaces.

Launch and later. Pages needed at launch are separated from pages planned for later phases, so the build can start without waiting for everything.

How the work runs

1. Gather inputs. Business goals, audiences, top tasks, existing content (if any) and constraints such as the content system or deadlines. The free information architecture worksheet collects these.
2. Group the content. We sort the planned content into candidate sections. If the right grouping is unclear, an open card sort with real users can show how they would group it.
3. Draft the hierarchy. A first sitemap with labels and addresses, shared as a diagram and a spreadsheet.
4. Review together. A working session with your team to test the draft against real scenarios: "Where would a new customer go to find out about fees?"
5. Refine and test. Changes from the review. Optional tree testing checks the labels with people outside your organisation.
6. Hand over. The final sitemap package, with notes for designers, developers and writers.

What you receive

• A sitemap spreadsheet: page title, address, parent, level, content type, purpose, owner, launch phase.
• A hierarchy diagram for presentations and briefs.
• A URL rules sheet so new pages follow the same pattern after launch.
• A draft sitemap.xml listing the planned addresses, for developers to adapt once the site is live. Google notes that it ignores the priority and change frequency values, so the draft lists addresses only.
• If you are replacing a site, a first-pass list of old addresses and where each should redirect.

Planning for growth

A good sitemap leaves room for content you do not have yet. We look at what your organisation is likely to publish over the next few years, such as new services, new regions or new audiences, and check that each has an obvious home. If a likely addition would force a reshuffle of the main menu, we would rather know now.

Sitemaps and search

A sitemap plan supports search visibility in practical ways: every page has a home, a readable address and at least one link from its parent. Google's SEO Starter Guide notes that grouping topically similar pages in directories matters chiefly for sites with "more than a few thousand URLs". For smaller sites the main benefit is clarity for people, which is reason enough. We do not promise rankings; we remove structural obstacles.

Pitfalls we plan around

• A section for every team, which forces visitors to learn the organisation chart.
• Clever section names that make sense only to people inside the organisation.
• A "Resources" or "Information" section that collects everything nobody could place.
• Pages that exist in two sections, with two addresses and two versions of the same facts.
• No home for the pages that hold a site together, such as contact, accessibility and privacy.

Who this suits

• Organisations starting a new website or a full rebuild.
• Teams merging two or more sites into one.
• Agencies that want a separate structure plan before design starts.

Before you contact us

Try drafting an outline in the sitemap builder. It suggests addresses and exports a spreadsheet, which gives us a useful head start. If you already have a site, the planning a sitemap guide explains how to inventory what you have first.

Questions about this topic

Is a planned sitemap the same as sitemap.xml?

No. A planned sitemap is a design document describing the pages and their hierarchy. sitemap.xml is a file you publish so search engines can find your URLs. The planned sitemap is the source the XML file is later generated from.

Can you plan a sitemap before we have content?

Yes. We plan from the tasks your visitors need to complete and the content types you expect. Each planned page gets a short note on what it must contain, which then guides your writers.

What format do we receive?

A spreadsheet with one row per page, a diagram of the hierarchy, and a written summary. The spreadsheet can be imported into project tools and content systems that accept CSV.

Sources checked 4 November 2026 for sitemap planning

1. SEO Starter Guide, Google
2. URL structure, Google
3. Hierarchical structure, Style Manual
4. Sitemaps, Google