What is an HTML Sitemap?
An HTML sitemap is an HTML page on which all subpages of a website are listed. It is usually linked in the footer of a site and is therefore visible to all visitors (Seobility Wiki).
According Search Engine Journal there are still benefits of having it.
As difference from the above mentioned article, this short post is not about whether there are any SEO or user point of view benefits of the HTML Sitemap, but more about what should NOT be included there.
First of all, if you only have four pages, HTML Sitemap may not be necessary at all.
Second, 404 is not a normal page that returns a 200 response code, but rather a functionality that indicates that what the user is looking for does not exist and if you are kind enough you can provide a search option or some helpful links (to the HTML Sitemap page, for example).
Now straight to the example:
- Do not include pages that have “Nothing to Show Right Now”
- Avoid self-referring link to Sitemap
- There is no one who needs a link to 404 Page
- Regarding the reference to “Please confirm your email” and “Thank you – Email confirmed” pages, I’ll leave it up to you, but personally to me, aside from the fact that it seems useful, I don’t see any way to mess with some eventual tracking of yours. 😉
Any other suggestions are very welcome in the comments.