Playbook 3: The sitemap, one page and one job
A sitemap in which every page has a URL, a keyword, an audience and a one-sentence job
- For
- Anyone planning the structure of a website
- You get
- The page spec we fill in for every page, and the rules we check it against
Our sitemap is a specification: every page has a URL, a template, a primary keyword, an audience and a job written as one sentence. A page whose job we cannot write in a sentence does not get built. The sitemap is approved before design starts, because it is the last point where structure changes cheaply.
What every page spec contains
Field | Example from a letting agency's owner page |
|---|---|
URL | /verhuurders |
Page type | Static (CMS for anything that repeats) |
Primary keyword | verhuurmakelaar amsterdam, 720 a month |
Intent | Commercial |
Audience | Property owners |
Job | Show what the agency takes off an owner's plate and send them to the intake form |
Sections, in order | The owner's real worry, grouped service list, what we take over, the process, rental law monitoring, valuation offer, owners club, reviews, call to action |
Primary and secondary action | Have your home let; read about the owners club |
Links in and out | From the homepage, footer, area pages and articles; out to the intake form, management page, FAQ and area pages |
The sections in the spec become the blocks of the wireframe one to one, so the client reviews the same structure twice: once as a list, once as a page.
The rules we apply to every sitemap
One keyword lives on one page. In the agency's first draft the homepage and the owner page competed for the same term. The homepage moved to the broader makelaar amsterdam, the owner page kept verhuurmakelaar amsterdam, and huis verhuren amsterdam went to the intake page. Each term now has exactly one page to rank.
Every journey ends on one intake page that does one thing. The owner intake page has no navigation to wander off through, the form on the left and three trust markers on the right, the form first on mobile, and a short explanation of what happens after you submit. Underneath sits 300 to 400 words on what letting a home in Amsterdam involves, which is what allows a conversion page to rank as well.
The homepage only routes. Every owner page ends at the owner form and every tenant page at the tenant form, so no visitor has to find the next step.
Form fields route the lead. The tenant form asks whether the person is already in the Netherlands. Those who are not get routed to video viewings, so the question does sales work before anyone picks up the phone.
Two audiences get two doors. When a site serves both sides of a market, the homepage opens with two separate entry blocks above the fold rather than one headline with two buttons. The side the business needs more of, here the owners, gets the heavier visual weight.
A page can earn its place without traffic. The agency's twenty area pages each draw around ten searches a month. We kept them because they prove local knowledge, give AI assistants specific facts to cite, and feed the owner journey. They are written for owners: rent levels, type of tenant, letting speed, what an owner should know.
FAQ answers open with a sentence that stands alone. The questions come from the kickoff. The first sentence of each answer must make sense when quoted on its own, because that is the sentence a search engine or an assistant lifts. The page carries FAQ markup.
One template, many items. The leadership coach's site has five self-assessment tests on one test template. A sixth test is a new CMS item with its own questions, scoring and result texts, with no new design and no new code. This is also why we price unique designs instead of pages.
Hidden pages are hidden on purpose. A test reachable only through a QR code in a printed book is set to noindex and left out of the sitemap. Test result pages are noindex as well, so search results show the test and never someone's answers.
Navigation comes last
The header is derived from the spec once every page has a job: the pages buyers choose between, plus one button for the main action. Lead magnets such as tests live in the footer and inside the pages that need them. The footer is grouped by audience, and states the relationship between brand and legal entity in one line with the company details.
Wireframes, then approval
Each page is wireframed in Relume from its spec, section by section. The client approves the structure before any visual design begins. If the structure changes after that, it goes through a change order, which protects both the timeline and the design work already done.
Do you have a project in mind?
Let's talk about how to apply this to your own site.
