What is a sitemap and why do I need it?

Question

I am creating a new website and I wonder what is really a sitemap and what does it add to the website? From my understanding it is a tree diagram of my pages and their connections is this for the user to access? Is it for the search engines?

thanks a lot.

Answer 1

Usually it is for the website-visitor to have an overview over your pages, as you said, a tree-view of your site. It is also good to have one for search engines, so they are able to find all your pages.

You can also create sitemaps specifically for search engines which are not visible for the end-user. Many create sitemaps to boost their rankings for search engines.