Sitemap.xml

• A Sitemap is an XML file that lists the URLs for a site. It allows webmasters to include additional information about each URL: when it was last updated, how often it changes, and how important it is in relation to other URLs in the site. This allows search engines to crawl the site more intelligently.

• Sitemaps are particularly beneficial on websites where:
1) some areas of the website are not available through the browsable interface, or
2) webmasters use rich Ajax or Flash content that is not normally processed by search engines.

NOTE: Sitemaps supplement and do not replace the existing crawl-based mechanisms that search engines already use to discover URLs. By submitting Sitemaps to a search engine, a webmaster is only helping that engine's crawlers to do a better job of crawling their site(s). Using this protocol does not guarantee that web pages will be included in search indexes, nor does it influence the way that pages are ranked in search result

The location of the Sitemap can also be included in the robots.txt file by adding the following line to robots.txt:
Sitemap: