Robots.txt means text file that guides search bots on which pages of your website they can or can’t crawl.
It acts as a set of instructions for web crawlers, helping control access to certain parts of your website and manage your crawl budget.
What Is Robots.txt?
A robots.txt file is placed in the root directory of a website (e.g., yourdomain.com/robots.txt) and uses a standard protocol called Robots Exclusion Protocol.
It tells search engines like Google, Bing, and others what parts of your site should be allowed or disallowed from being crawled and indexed.
While it doesn’t guarantee privacy or complete blockage, it plays a critical role in SEO and site structure control.
Why Robots.txt Matters:
- Controls Bot Access: Prevents crawlers from accessing sensitive or non-essential pages (e.g., admin panels, cart pages).
- Saves Crawl Budget: Ensures search engines focus on important, index-worthy content.
- Prevents Indexing of Duplicates: Stops bots from crawling faceted or duplicate content.
- Improves Site Performance: Reduces unnecessary server requests from bots.
- Guides SEO Strategy: Helps prioritize how your site is explored by search engines.
Basic Robots.txt Syntax:
txtCopyEditUser-agent: *
Disallow: /admin/
Allow: /blog/
Sitemap: https://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml
User-agent: Defines which crawler the rule applies to (*= all bots).Disallow: Blocks access to a specific path.Allow: Grants access to a specific path.Sitemap: Provides the URL of your XML sitemap to help bots crawl efficiently.
Best Practices:
- Don’t block important content accidentally.
- Test your file using Google Search Console’s robots.txt tester.
- Always allow access to resources (JS, CSS) critical for rendering.
- Use it in combination with meta tags (
noindex) when needed. - Keep the file updated as your website evolves.
