What is Robots.txt and Why Is It Important for Your Website?

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robots.txt

Robots.txt: A Guide to What It Is and How to Create It

One of the essential components of technical SEO is robots.txt, a powerful file that guides search engines in reading and indexing a website.

What exactly is this archive and why is it important? Join us on this tour to find out.

What is a robots.txt?

Robots.txt is a plain text file used to inform search engine bots which pages they can and cannot crawl. This file plays a fundamental role in web crawl management, helping webmasters control the visibility of their content in search engines.

How do I check if I have a robots.txt file?

Checking if your website has a robots.txt file is a simple process. To do so, simply open your web browser and type your domain’s URL followed by “/robots.txt” .

For example, if your domain is www.example.com, you would enter www.example.com/robots.txt in the address bar and press Enter. If the file exists, the browser will display its contents, allowing you to see the rules you’ve set. If it doesn’t exist, you’ll see a 404 error message, indicating that the file was not found.

You can use tools like Google Search Console to verify that the file is being correctly read by the Google bot, as well as view the history of robots.txt files on your website .

How does a robots.txt work?

The structure of a robots.txt file is fairly simple and linear: once you understand the basic rules and instructions, it will be easy to read and create a working robots.txt file.

You should take into account some considerations in your robots.txt:

  • Always after the syntax you must add two points ( : )
  • Robots.txt rules are case-sensitive.
  • Do not block specific pages with this rule, its use is more oriented to blocking access to subdirectories with multiple pages

The syntax of robots.txt is as follows:

  • User-agent
  • Disallow
  • Allow
  • Sitemap

Let’s look at them in detail.

User-agent

User-agent specifies which search engine or bot the rules apply to. Each search engine has its own name, but if none is specified and * is entered, the rules apply to all bots.

Use :

  • User-agent: * is used to apply rules to all search engines.
  • It is possible to specify different rules for different search engines.

Disallow command

Disallow indicates which parts of the website should not be crawled by the search engines specified in the User-agent directive.

Use :

  • Each Disallow line must be followed by the relative path you want to block.
  • If you want to block the entire website, use a single forward slash ( / ).
  • It is used to block subdirectories, or more colloquially, specific folders or everything that comes from certain folders.

Allow command

Allow specifies which parts of the website can be crawled by search engines, even if a broader Disallow rule might imply otherwise. This is useful in complex combinations where we want to crawl a subfolder of a previously blocked folder.

Use:

  • Each Allow line must be followed by the relative path you want to allow.
  • It is not necessary to add this directive for every folder on your website; it is only recommended when you need to specify a folder that could be blocked by another rule.

Sitemap Command

Sitemap provides the location of the website’s various XML sitemap files. This file helps search engines find all the site’s URLs that should be crawled and indexed, that is, all site URLs that respond with a 200 code and have the index tag.

Use :

  • The Sitemap directive must be followed by the absolute URL of the sitemap file.
  • You can add the different sitemap.xml that the website has (language versions, images, documents, etc.)

Read More: Generative Engine Optimization: Top GEO Strategies to Improve Your Visibility

How to create a .txt file?

To create a robots.txt file and configure it correctly on your website, follow these simple steps:

1. Write the rules in a text editor: To write the rules, use any simple text editor (making sure it is in plain text mode) and define the rules using the `User-agent`, `Disallow`, `Allow` and `Sitemap` directives.

2. Upload the file to the root of the domain: Save the file with the name `robots.txt` and upload it to the root of your domain.

3.      Verify and test: Access `http://www.yoursite.com/robots.txt` from your browser to ensure it’s accessible. Use tools like Google Search Console to test and validate the file’s configuration, ensuring search engines interpret it correctly.

Why robots.txt is important for your website’s SEO

Using the robots.txt file offers multiple advantages for website management and optimization. Below are some of the most significant benefits that can be achieved by properly implementing this file.

Crawl Optimization

The robots.txt file plays a fundamental role in optimizing search engine crawling of a website. By specifying which pages or files should be crawled and which should be ignored, this file guides search robots to focus on the most relevant content . For example, you can prevent crawling pages that are sensitive to your business, pages automatically generated by the CMS, or files that don’t provide value to the user.

By doing so, search engines can use the resources they have for each site more efficiently , spending more time crawling and indexing the pages that truly matter. This not only improves your site’s coverage in search results, but can also speed up the indexing of new content, ensuring that the most important pages are updated more quickly in search engine indexes.

Improving site performance

Proper use of the robots.txt file also significantly contributes to improving website performance, especially for websites with multiple levels of pages . When robots attempt to crawl a site’s pages without restrictions, they can consume significant server resources. In extreme cases, this can lead to the website crashing due to server overload.

By limiting search engine bot access to only the pages you truly need to read and index, you reduce the number of requests your server must handle . This not only frees up resources for human visitors, improving their browsing experience, but can also result in lower operating costs if you’re using a server with limited resources or a hosting plan that charges based on bandwidth usage.

Protection of sensitive content

Protecting sensitive content is another crucial function of the robots.txt file . On many websites, there are pages and files containing private or confidential information that should not be publicly accessible through search engines. These may include login pages, administrative directories, files with internal company information, or even content in development that isn’t yet ready for public release.

By specifying in your robots.txt file that these elements should not be crawled, you add an extra layer of security . While it’s not a foolproof security measure (since robots.txt files are public and can be read by anyone), it’s an important first step in preventing this information from appearing in search results. For more robust protection, these sensitive files and pages should also be protected with credentials and a login.

Best practices for optimizing robots.txt

  • Regular Update: It is important to keep your robots.txt file updated to reflect any changes to your website’s structure and content.
  • Verification and testing: Use tools like Google Search Console to test and verify the effectiveness of your robots.txt file. This ensures that the established rules are being applied correctly.

Common mistakes and how to avoid them

The robots.txt file can be a source of errors that negatively impact a website’s SEO and functionality. Knowing these common errors and how to avoid them is crucial to ensuring your website is properly indexed and accessible to search engines.

Robots.txt not in the domain root

Bots can only discover the file if it’s located at the root of the domain. For that reason, there should be only one forward slash (/) between your website’s .com (or equivalent) domain and the filename ‘robots.txt’ in your robots.txt file URL, for example:

www.example.com/robots.txt

If there’s a subfolder (www.example.com/abc/robots.txt), your robots.txt file won’t be visible to search engine crawlers, and your website might behave as if it didn’t have a robots.txt file. To fix this, move your robots.txt file to the root of your domain.

Also, if you work with subdomains, it’s important to consider that you must create a robots.txt file for each of them, separate from the one for the main domain.

Syntax errors and blocking of important content

A small error in your robots.txt file can result in important pages being blocked. For example, adding an extra slash could prevent the entire site from being crawled or prevent certain crucial pages from being crawled, meaning they’re not indexed by search engines. This could decrease organic traffic to those pages and negatively impact your site’s overall performance in terms of visibility and ranking in search results.

It’s crucial to carefully review and verify your robots.txt file to ensure it doesn’t contain errors that could limit search engines’ access to important areas of your website.

Update failure

Failure to keep the file up to date can lead to unwanted pages being indexed or important pages being left out of the search engine index.

Conclusion

The robots.txt file is an easy yet effective way of guiding search engines how to crawl your website. Done correctly, it can improve crawling, block sensitive information, and enhance the performance of a website. Get it updated, clean, and test it always so that it is useful for SEO uses.

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