The Page Map

1One page per search

Module 01 named the three searches that bring a client to Hermetic: a service with a place ("IT support Richmond VA"), the company name ("Hermetic Networks"), and a problem ("email hacked what to do"). Each search needs one page written to answer it. The page map is the list of those pages, with the search each one answers, its URL, and its status.

Two pages aimed at the same search compete with each other. Every link, every visit and every signal Google collects gets split across them, and Google chooses which one to show, which is often the one you would not have picked. Merging them puts everything on one page.

2The site today

The page sitemap lists 139 pages. Grouped by what the URL says the page is about, they fall into six sets.

Three things in that chart shape the rest of the module.

• Duplicate service pages. Managed IT has three URLs: /managed-services/, /managed-it-support-richmond-va/ and /managed-it-services-in-richmond-expertise-to-elevate-your-business/. Backup has three: /backup-disaster-recovery/, /backup-disaster-recovery-richmond/ and /backup-disaster-recovery-old/. VoIP has two. Cybersecurity has a generic page, a Richmond page and a Virginia Beach page. Each set is one service competing with itself.
• Pages that should not be in search at all. /thank-you/, /thank-you-for-schedule-an-appointment/ and /opt-out-preferences/ are in the sitemap. So are author archives for the agency that built the site and for the shared info@ mailbox, and an uncategorized category.
• 57 tourism pages. Metro Richmond Zoo, Maymont (twice), Hollywood Cemetery (twice), ten "henrico-virginia-city-guide" pages. They bring visitors who want a zoo. None of them is looking for an IT provider. What to do with them needs Search Console data you do not have yet, so they get a placeholder decision now and a real one in module 10.

The post sitemap lists 148 URLs. The posts stay as they are for launch. Auditing 147 posts is after-launch work, also in module 10.

3The services and locations grid

The fastest way to build the map is a grid: services down the side, places across the top. Each cell is a possible page. The point of the grid is to see how few of the cells deserve one.

The filled column is the map's backbone: one page per service, and that page names Richmond and the office address, because that is where the clients are and where the Google Business Profile is. Richmond, Henrico and Chesterfield are one metro to a searcher and to Google, so one page covers all three. The 13 city landing pages on the site today (Midlothian, Mechanicsville, Sandston, Bensley and so on) split that one metro into thirteen thin pieces.

A cell outside that column gets its own page only when both tests pass:

1. Hermetic serves clients there. Not "would take a client there". Has them, or is actively selling there.
2. The page can say something the service page cannot. A named client in that area, a technician who covers it, the drive time from the office, a local compliance requirement. If the only difference is the city name swapped in, it is the same page with a different URL, and Google treats it that way.

Virginia Beach and Lynchburg each have several pages today. Whether they pass test one is a question for Jeff, not for this module. Write the answer into the map and move on.

4Keep, merge, redirect, noindex

Every one of the 139 pages gets one of five decisions. The decision goes into the redirect inventory, and module 09 turns the inventory into live redirects.

The fifth decision is remove: the page is gone, nothing replaces it, and the server answers 410. Use it only when there is no page a visitor from the old link would want.

5URL rules

A URL is read by the searcher in the results page and by Google as a signal of what the page is about. Rank Math's own test flags a URL over 75 characters. Four rules cover everything on the map.

One more: do not put the company name in the slug. It is already in the domain.

6The two spreadsheets

Both live in one workbook. The page map is the site you are building. The redirect inventory is the site you have, and what happens to each part of it. Module 09 imports the inventory into Rank Math as a CSV, so keep the column names exactly as below.

Sheet 1: page map

Sheet 2: redirect inventory

Start the inventory from the sitemap rather than from memory. The sitemap is the list Google has. Copy the 139 URLs out of page-sitemap.xml into column A and decide row by row.

7Do this now

1. Open https://www.hermeticnetworks.com/page-sitemap.xml in a browser. Copy every URL into column A of a new sheet named Redirect inventory. Add the columns from section 6. You now have the complete list Google is working from, which is longer than the navigation suggests.
2. Sort the sheet by URL. Duplicates sit next to each other. Mark every set of duplicates from the table in section 4 with the decision shown there.
3. Mark the three thank-you and opt-out pages Noindex, and the 57 tourism pages Hold. That clears 60 rows without a decision you cannot make yet.
4. Open a second sheet named Page map. Draw the grid from section 3: the ten services from the site's navigation down column A. For each, write the primary search and the URL that follows section 5.
5. Ask Jeff the two tests in section 3 for Virginia Beach and for Lynchburg. Write the answer into both sheets: a page in the map if yes, a merge into the service page if no.
6. Add the brand pages (homepage, About Us, Client Testimonials, Case Studies, Areas We Serve) and the four industry pages to the map as Keep. Every page on the map now has a search, a URL and a status.
7. Count the rows in the inventory with no decision. Work through them until the count is zero. A row with no decision at launch becomes a 404.

8Check yourself

1. Hermetic has /managed-services/, /managed-it-support-richmond-va/ and a third managed IT page. What is the cost of leaving all three live?

   Answer

   All three aim at the same search, so links, visits and signals get split three ways and Google picks which one to show. Merging them into one page puts everything on that page. Before deleting the losers, check which URL gets clicks in Search Console.

2. Someone proposes a page for each of Midlothian, Mechanicsville, Sandston and Bensley, since the site has them today. Apply the two tests.

   Answer

   Test one, do we serve clients there, probably passes for all four, since they are in the Richmond metro. Test two, can the page say something the service page cannot, fails: they are the same metro and the same office, so the only change is the city name. One metro gets one service page, and Areas We Serve lists the neighborhoods.

3. What is the difference between merge and redirect in the inventory?

   Answer

   Both end in a 301. Merge means the content of two or more pages is combined into one and the others point to it. Redirect means the page is unchanged but its URL is, for example a corrected spelling. The distinction tells the writer whether there is content to move.

4. Why do the thank-you pages get noindex rather than remove?

   Answer

   Visitors still need them after submitting a form. Noindex keeps them working for visitors and takes them out of search. Remove, with a 410, is for a page nothing replaces.

5. Why are the 57 tourism pages marked Hold instead of decided now?

   Answer

   The right decision depends on whether any of them bring traffic that turns into clients, and that needs Search Console data, which is not connected until module 06. Launch does not depend on them, so they wait for module 10.

6. Which sheet does module 09 import into Rank Math, and why do the column names matter?

   Answer

   The redirect inventory. Rank Math imports redirects from a CSV with source and destination columns, so the inventory has to be in a shape that maps onto that.

9Glossary

Search intent

What the person typing the search wants: a provider, a company they know, or an answer. One page answers one intent.

Page map

The list of pages the site needs, each with the search it answers, its URL and its status.

Redirect inventory

Every URL on the current site with its decision: keep, merge, redirect, noindex, remove or hold.

Keyword cannibalization

Two or more pages on one site aimed at the same search, competing with each other.

Merge

Combining duplicate pages into one and redirecting the others to it.

301 redirect

A permanent redirect. Sends visitors and Google from an old URL to a new one and passes the old page's standing along.

410

The server response for a page that is gone with no replacement. Google removes it from the index.

Noindex

A robots instruction that keeps a page out of search while leaving it live for visitors.

Slug

The part of the URL after the domain that names the page, such as /cybersecurity/.

Sitemap

The XML list of URLs the site tells Google about. Today generated by Yoast at /sitemap_index.xml.

Focus keyword

Rank Math's name for the primary search a page is written for. Set per page in module 07.

Areas We Serve

The existing page at /areas-we-serve/ that lists the places Hermetic covers and links to the service pages.

10Sources

• Rank Math, How to Score 100/100 with Rank Math: the URL length test (75 characters) and the focus keyword.
• Rank Math, Setting up Redirections: redirect types 301 and 410 and the CSV import columns.
• Google Search Central, Consolidate duplicate URLs: why duplicates split signals and how redirects consolidate them.
• Google Search Central, Block Search indexing with noindex: what noindex does.
• Site facts from a crawl of www.hermeticnetworks.com on 2026-09-29: page-sitemap.xml (139 URLs), post-sitemap.xml (148 URLs), category, tag and author sitemaps, and the navigation.

Documentation read 2026-09-29. Rank Math changes often; where this page and the documentation disagree, the documentation is current.