A sitemap is a protocol that allows a webmaster to inform search engines about URLs on a website that are available for crawling. A webmaster would want to use this as they actually want their information to be crawled by a search engine. The webmaster wants to make that content available for you to find, at least through search engines. But you can also use this information to your advantage.
A sitemap lists the URLs on a site, and allows a webmasters to specify additional information about each URL:
- When it was last updated
- How often the content changes
- How important the URL is in relation to others
Sitemaps are useful on websites where:
- Some areas of the website are not available through the browsable interface; that is, you cannot reach those pages
- Ajax, Silverlight, or Flash content is used but not normally processed by search engines
- The site...
