What is Robots.txt?
A text file that tells search engine crawlers which pages on your site they can or cannot request.
Deep Dive
The robots.txt file is part of the Robots Exclusion Protocol (REP), a group of web standards that regulate how robots crawl the web.
It is mainly used to avoid overloading your site with requests or to keep specific pages (like admin panels or staging sites) out of search results.
Key Takeaways
- Does not enforce security; just a directive for bots.
- Located at domain.com/robots.txt.
- Can accidentally de-index your whole site if configured wrong.
- Essential for managing crawl budget on large sites.
Why This Matters Now
This is the 'Do Not Enter' sign for your website. It's the first file a crawler looks for.
It's critical for technical health. You don't want Google wasting time crawling your internal search results or login pages. You want them focused on your money pages.
Common Myths & Misconceptions
Disallowing a page hides it from Google.
Reality:It stops them from *crawling* content, but they can still *index* the URL if other people link to it. Use 'noindex' meta tag to truly hide content.
I don't need one.
Reality:You should have one, even if it just says 'User-agent: * Allow: /'. It's best practice and helps prevent errors.
Real-World Use Cases
Crawl Efficiency: Blocking standard 'filter' URLs on e-commerce sites to save crawl budget.
Privacy: Blocking dev/staging environments to prevent unfinished sites from leaking onto Google.
AI Control: Blocking 'GPTBot' if you don't want OpenAI training their models on your content.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is User-agent?
The name of the bot. 'Googlebot' is Google. 'Bingbot' is Bing. You can give different rules to different bots.
How do I test it?
Google Search Console has a 'Robots.txt Tester' that lets you see if a specific URL is blocked.
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