I didn't know robots text
was important for accessibility, however I learned from the
accessites team that it is.
Tee,
The reasons we (Accessites) look for a robots.txt file is because it keeps
honest bots from wasting their time and your bandwidth indexing
directories/files you don't want indexed. We don't look at this as part of a
web accessibility requirement. Our focus is on quality sites for which
accessibility must be an integral part. Thus, we like to see things like a
robots.txt file, PICS label, semantics, good looks, and more, of course.
Regarding a site map, that we like to see for accessibility and not for bots
at all. A site map is important to accessibility as some user will seek out
a site map right away to grasp a site's overview and offerings. For some
users, this is the best way to begin the exploration of a site. In my
opinion, html site maps don't have anything to do with indexing other than
just being another indexable page.
It is my understanding, though, that an XML site map can help indexing but
being that I've never used one or looked into it much, I can neither confirm
or deny this.
Sorry for the misunderstanding.
Respectfully,
Mike Cherim
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