Sitemap in design: why you shouldn't skip the map If you're serious about your SaaS

Red flag: If someone offers you a wireframing process to design a website - they don’t understand web. For websites, the real UX work is deciding what content matters and how it’s organized — not pushing grey boxes around in Figma.

Why is a sitemap even needed?

Because a sitemap is your content and conversion strategy in disguise.

It helps you:

• Define your core structure before the “design phase” eats your budget
• Map key content for users and for search engines
• Decide what the user sees first, and where you want them to go next

Sitemaps are underrated because they’re simple. But that’s the power: they force you to think before you decorate.

What Is a Sitemap Based On?

Don’t just wing it. A good sitemap is based on:

• Your product goals
• Basic user logic
• Competitive analysis
• The story you want to tell (and how quickly people will care)

It should align with your information architecture - which is a fancy way of saying: “Don’t dump everything into the navigation bar.”

Sitemaps for Startups: The Good, the Bad, and the Unfunded

Let’s break down some startup behaviors we see again and again:

Good Example: Linear.app

Link: https://linear.app

Overview:
Linear’s sitemap (and site structure) is a masterclass in clarity. It has:

• A simple, goal-focused page hierarchy

• Clear separation of product, pricing, company, and support

• Strong SEO fundamentals (individual pages for features, changelog, templates)

• Everything you need, nothing you don’t

Why it works:
It respects user flow — from landing, to understanding the value, to signing up. The sitemap helps you understand the product before you see a single UI element.

Bad Example: “Mystery SaaS” Syndrome

Overview:
Imagine landing on a sleek, modern website with scroll-triggered animations, bold typography, and a fancy gradient background. You're impressed… until you try to understand what this startup actually does.

The main navigation has labels like:

• “Explore”

• “Solutions”

• “Why Us”

• “Start Now”

You click “Solutions” and it’s just a carousel of buzzwords: "Optimize. Accelerate. Innovate." There’s no clear list of features, no product explanation, no pricing, and no way to compare plans.

Why does this fails:
This sitemap isn’t really a map — it’s a brochure disguised as a maze. It prioritizes looking cool over being useful. And that’s not “minimalism” — it’s just bad UX.

For users, it feels like wandering through an art gallery when all they wanted was to buy a hammer.

Red flags:

• Vague page titles

• Missing pricing or FAQ

• No dedicated pages for features or use cases

• No logical hierarchy or grouping

Moral of the story:

If your sitemap doesn't clearly answer what you do, who it's for, and why anyone should care — you’re not being mysterious. You’re just being forgettable.

Final Word (But Not a Soft One)

You wouldn't build a startup without a roadmap.

You wouldn’t go to market without a pitch deck.

So please, for the love of UX - don’t build your product without a sitemap.

It’s not glamorous, but it’s foundational.

And unlike most things in tech, a sitemap doesn’t lie.

Need help building one that’s strategic, scalable, and doesn’t look like a spaghetti monster?

You know where to find us.