A robots.txt file is a type of text file. These files inform the web crawlers which pages or sections of a website they can or cannot access. Robot.txt files help to manage crawler activity and optimize server resources. However, these files are not responsible for controlling page indexing.
Key Directives in Robots.txt
- User-agent: Agent that Specifies which crawler the rule applies on.
- Disallow: helps to block specific URLs from being crawled.
- Allow: Permits or allows crawling of specific URLs within a blocked section.
- Sitemap: Specifies the location of the XML sitemap.
- Crawl-delay: Controls the crawl rate (not supported by Googlebot).
Example Robots.txt File
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User-agent: Googlebot Â
Disallow: /privacy/Â Â
Allow: /privacy/public-content/Â Â
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml Â
Why Is Robots.txt Important?
- Optimizes Crawl Budget: Prevents search engines from wasting resources on unimportant pages.
- Restricts Sensitive Pages: Blocks access to admin panels, login pages, and gated content.
- Manages Crawler Behavior: Helps control traffic to prevent server overload.
Limitations
- Robots.txt cannot prevent pages from being indexed if linked externally.
- You can use the noindex meta tag or password protection for stronger content control.
How to Test Robots.txt?
Use the Robots.txt Tester in Google Search Console to validate and troubleshoot your file.
