It used to be that you had to ping Google and Yahoo everytime you wanted your sitemap.xml file to be spidered (searched), which would then result in the search engines’ indexing your entire site according to the linkage and structure in your file.
If you’re not familiar with creating a sitemap.xml file, I’ve included a tool and video to help you do this in my Best SEO Tools section. Basically, the xml sitemap shows the architecture and interlinking pages of your Web site so the crawlers include everything in their report to the indexers. (Your html sitemap also helps the spiders do this, but it’s mainly a function for keyword indexing and user friendliness.)
Now, Ask.com, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Live Search (MSN) have agreed upon a single line to add to your robots.txt file that will automate the process–no more need to inform the search engines when you’ve updated your sitemap!
Customize and add this to your robots file and voila!–instant indexing of your sitemap:
Sitemap: http://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml
Tags: sitemap.xml file
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