When looking for a specific section on a news site, you land on the homepage, scroll, and give up. The sitemap exists to avoid this scenario. On Tous les Faits, the access process remains simple, provided you know where to look and understand what this page actually encompasses.
HTML Sitemap and XML Sitemap: Two Tools Not to Be Confused
When we talk about a “sitemap,” two realities coexist. The first, visible to readers, is an HTML page that lists the sections, categories, and articles of a site in the form of clickable links. It’s a navigation summary.
The second is an XML file (often accessible via an address like /sitemap.xml) intended for search engines. This file structures the site’s URLs so that Google, Bing, or other indexing bots can crawl them efficiently. Internet users are not meant to consult it.
On Tous les Faits, the page we are interested in is indeed a sitemap in HTML format. It can be accessed by consulting the sitemap of Tous les Faits, which presents the structure of the published content. This distinction is important: if you are looking to navigate between the site’s sections, this is the page you need, not the technical file reserved for crawlers.
Accessing the Sitemap of Tous les Faits: The Direct Method
The quickest way is to type the full address into the browser’s navigation bar. There’s no need to go through a search engine or dig through menus.
On most news sites, the link to the sitemap is found in the footer. It’s a web design convention that Tous les Faits adheres to. If you are already on the site, just scroll to the bottom of any page and look for the mention “Sitemap” or “Plan du site”.
When the Link Doesn’t Appear at First Glance
Some mobile browsers hide part of the footer, especially when consent banners for cookies or floating navigation bars occupy the bottom of the screen. In this case, closing the cookie banner before scrolling frees up the necessary space.
On a computer, the Ctrl+F (or Cmd+F on Mac) combination allows you to search for the word “sitemap” or “plan” directly on the displayed page. This saves a few seconds compared to manual scrolling.
What the Sitemap Reveals About Content Organization
A sitemap is not just a list of URLs. It reflects the editorial logic of a media outlet. By browsing the one from Tous les Faits, you can quickly identify the hierarchy of categories, the themes covered, and the frequency of publication in each section.
For a regular reader, this overview allows you to spot sections that you might never have found through the homepage alone. News sites often publish several articles a day, and older content quickly disappears from the front page without being deleted. The sitemap makes them accessible again.
Practical Use for Finding an Article
You remember a topic you read about a few weeks ago, but the exact title escapes you. You have two options:
- Open the sitemap, identify the corresponding thematic category, and then browse the articles listed under that section
- Use the site’s internal search if it exists, but the results then depend on the relevance of the integrated engine
- Combine both approaches: the sitemap to target the right section, then the search to refine by keywords within that section
The sitemap acts as a safety net when the internal search yields no promising results.
Why Consult the Sitemap Instead of Google for Navigation
Using an external search engine to find a page on a site you already know seems logical, but this approach has its limits. Google does not index all pages of a site in real-time. A recently published article may not appear in the results for several hours or even days.
The HTML sitemap, on the other hand, is updated on the server with each publication. Therefore, it contains content that Google has not yet indexed. For readers who closely follow the news, this difference in freshness matters.
The Case of Deliberately Non-Indexed Pages
Some pages of a site are excluded from indexing by editorial choice (legal notice pages, terms of use, intermediate category pages). These pages will never appear in Google, but the HTML sitemap can list them if the publisher decides to. This is an additional access point that the search engine does not replace.
Sitemap and Accessibility: A Navigation Challenge for All Profiles
HTML sitemaps play an underestimated role in digital accessibility. For people using screen readers or assistive technologies, a page structured with links organized by category facilitates navigation compared to a complex dropdown menu.
A menu with multiple levels of subcategories requires precise interactions (hovering, clicking, scrolling). The sitemap flattens this structure into a single linear page, readable from top to bottom.
- Links are presented in a logical order, grouped by theme
- Each link has an explicit title (article or section title), which helps assistive technologies announce the content
- The page generally contains neither carousels, nor complex scripts, nor interactive elements that could block keyboard navigation
For readers who prefer simple and exhaustive navigation, the sitemap remains the most reliable way to browse the entirety of a site without relying on the ergonomics of menus.
The sitemap of Tous les Faits fulfills exactly this function. Whether the goal is to find a specific article, discover an unknown section, or simply understand how the site organizes its content, this unique page concentrates the entire structure in one place.
