See me on stage: Startup Nights Winterthur 2026 - "ChatGPT Hates You" on Friday 6th of November 16:30 in the Dragon Room.

HTML Sitemap

Find exactly what you are looking for

Offer of Dani Leitner

GEO/AEO/LLMO Consultinghttps://danileitner.ch/en/offer/geo-consulting/
Monthly SEO Retainerhttps://danileitner.ch/en/offer/monthly-seo-service/
SEO/GEO Strategy Sessionhttps://danileitner.ch/en/offer/seo-geo-strategy-session/
Visibility Sprinthttps://danileitner.ch/en/offer/seo-visibility-sprint/
WordPress SEO Experthttps://danileitner.ch/en/wordpress-seo-consultant/
SEO-Newsletterhttps://danileitner.ch/en/google-hates-you-newsletter/

SEO Blog

Overview Page of all Blog posts

Automate Like a Pro with App Scripts & ChatGPThttps://danileitner.ch/en/blog/automate-like-a-pro-with-app-scripts-chatgpt/
Building a Strong Personal Brand as an SEO Experthttps://danileitner.ch/en/blog/building-a-strong-personal-brand-as-an-seo-expert/
Conferences for Introverts: My Personal Experiencehttps://danileitner.ch/en/blog/conferences-for-introverts/
Difference Between Google & LLMs (Traditional Search vs. AI Search)https://danileitner.ch/en/blog/difference-between-traditional-search-vs-ai-search/
Divergent & Convergent Thinking for Keyword Researchhttps://danileitner.ch/en/blog/divergent-convergent-thinking-for-keyword-research/
Domain Strategy for international SEOhttps://danileitner.ch/en/blog/domain-for-international-seo/
Experiment: SEO for ChatGPT – Can I get mentioned as the No. 1 SEO freelancer in Switzerland who accepts Bitcoin payments?https://danileitner.ch/en/blog/experiment-seo-for-chatgpt/
Explaining Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)https://danileitner.ch/en/blog/explaining-generative-engine-optimization-geo/
First Principles of SEOhttps://danileitner.ch/en/blog/first-principles-of-seo/
The Founder Story Event in Zurich – From Vision to Realityhttps://danileitner.ch/en/blog/founders-story-november-2023/
Google Leak Insights: Understanding Topical Authorityhttps://danileitner.ch/en/blog/google-leak-insights-topical-authority/
How a Small Travel Blog Gained Topical Authority: A Case Studyhttps://danileitner.ch/en/blog/how-a-small-travel-blog-gained-topical-authority-a-case-study/
How to Design Website Navigation: Balancing SEO, UX, and Client Needshttps://danileitner.ch/en/blog/how-to-design-website-navigation-balancing-seo-ux-and-client-needs/
When Do LLMs “Search” the Internet? – Insights from the Claude System Prompt Leakhttps://danileitner.ch/en/blog/insights-from-the-claude-system-prompt-leak/
Search, like we know it, will changehttps://danileitner.ch/en/blog/search-like-we-know-it-will-change/
SEO for DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland)https://danileitner.ch/en/blog/seo-for-dach/
SEO for Start-upshttps://danileitner.ch/en/blog/seo-for-start-ups/
SEO Prediction for 2024https://danileitner.ch/en/blog/seo-prediction-for-2024/
Guide to Topical Authority for SEOhttps://danileitner.ch/en/blog/seo-strategy-topical-authority/
SEO Tip for 2025: “Focus on one topic to gain topical authority.”https://danileitner.ch/en/blog/seo-tip-for-2025-focus-on-one-topic-to-gain-topical-authority/
Domain Authority vs. Topical Authorityhttps://danileitner.ch/en/blog/the-new-ranking-factor-topical-authority/
Topical Authority: A Step-by-Step Guide to Make Search Engines Love Youhttps://danileitner.ch/en/blog/topical-authority-a-step-by-step-guide-to-make-search-engines-love-you/
Why You Can’t Copy-Paste Your SEO Strategy Across DACH Marketshttps://danileitner.ch/en/blog/why-you-cant-copy-paste-your-seo-strategy-across-dach-markets/

Other Languages

Hompage German
Homepage English
Homepage Spanish

Other Pages

Case Study: Local business achieves 240% more visibility — and customers from across Switzerlandhttps://danileitner.ch/en/case-study-ischmitt-repair-seo-sprint-en/
About Mehttps://danileitner.ch/en/about-me/
Contacthttps://danileitner.ch/en/contact/
Imprinthttps://danileitner.ch/en/imprint/
Privacy policyhttps://danileitner.ch/en/privacy-policy/

What is an HTML sitemap?

An HTML sitemap is a list of all the pages on a website, laid out in one long list. Unlike an XML sitemap (read the post about it to learn more), which is of course essential for SEO, this page is designed to be readable for you and me.

But is an HTML sitemap actually useful?

Honestly, on a small website like mine, probably not that much. But since you’ve found it, it’s the perfect way to explain an SEO concept.

On a large website with 1,000 subpages, it can help strengthen internal links without requiring much work from developers. That’s because this page puts every page just two clicks away from the homepage.

So what exactly is an HTML sitemap good for?

For search engines

An XML sitemap is what search engines actually look at to find all your pages. But sometimes, subpages can get lost in the depths of your website. We call these orphan pages—pages that have no links pointing to them. Google isn’t a fan, because how is a user ever supposed to find those pages?

For users

I don’t know about you, but I don’t have time to visit a website and click through every single page just to see what’s there. The one exception, of course, is when I’m doing an SEO audit—in that case, that’s exactly one of the things I do.

An HTML sitemap can help users discover new corners of your website that might be interesting to them—and make it easy to do so.

AI search engines

ChatGPT and the like are a bit like us users: they definitely don’t have the patience to spend weeks following links around a website and figuring out what it’s about, the way Google does. AI search engines build an impression of your website quickly. So it’s really useful for them, too, to have a nicely organized list of your subpages.

Examples of HTML sitemaps

I didn’t come up with this concept myself. I learned about it from Eli Schwartz’s newsletter, where he shares a few successful examples.

Dani Leitner HTML sitemap: Obviously, this very page is an example of an HTML sitemap.

SurveyMonkey: In 2016, Eli added a sitemap like this to the SurveyMonkey website. Suddenly, old pages were being found and crawled again—and started ranking better.

LinkedIn: Did you know that even LinkedIn has a hidden HTML sitemap listing all the people and companies in its database? It’s tucked away in the footer when you’re logged in.

Want to learn more about SEO?

If you’ve made it this far and you’re still reading, you have two options. You can click through my entire website to find more little Easter eggs with SEO explanations like this one.

Or you can sign up for my newsletter. You’ll get more SEO content—and, from time to time, explanations of my Easter eggs delivered straight to your inbox.

The Google Hates You Newsletter

Signing up is free.
Unsubscribing is simple.
Learning about SEO & AI is unavoidable.

Scroll to Top