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Building a Clean HTML Sitemap from a Sitemap TV or XML Source

An XML sitemap helps crawlers, but users still benefit from a readable HTML sitemap. The original question here asked how to build one cleanly when sitemap data already exists elsewhere. Typical Output Goal <ul class=

An XML sitemap helps crawlers, but users still benefit from a readable HTML sitemap. The original question here asked how to build one cleanly when sitemap data already exists elsewhere.

Typical Output Goal

<ul class="sitemap">
  <li><a href="...">Home</a></li>
  <li><a href="...">Child 1</a></li>
  <li><a href="...">Child 2</a></li>
</ul>

Good Practice

  • treat the HTML sitemap as a navigation page, not as raw XML rendered visibly
  • keep classes and structure simple
  • include only pages that make sense for users, not every technical URL

The HTML sitemap should be useful to people first and only incidentally helpful to crawlers. That is what keeps it readable and maintainable.

Newer post

Keeping YAMS and WebLoginPE Working Together

What to check when YAMS and WebLoginPE start producing blank pages or unstable output on multilingual Evolution CMS projects.

Older post

Using a Custom where Clause in Ditto Safely

How to approach date-range filtering and custom SQL conditions in Ditto without turning a listing into an unsafe string-building exercise.