robots.txt
The robots.txt file allows you to specify rules for robots/web crawlers to follow when they are visiting your website. It is where web administrators can implement the Robot Exclusion Protocol.
Here's an example robots.txt file
User-Agent: *
Allow: /
Disallow: /private/
Sitemap: https://acme.com/sitemap.xml
Use cases for robots.txt
Blocking Non-Public Pages
Example: Staging environments, development versions, or private files that are not intended for public access.
Use: You can disallow access to directories or pages that shouldn't appear in search results, like /staging/, /test/, or /admin/.
Preventing Crawling of Duplicate Content
Example: E-commerce websites often have multiple versions of the same page for different product filters or sorting options.
Use: By blocking these URLs, you can prevent search engines from indexing duplicate content, which could negatively impact SEO. For instance, blocking parameters like /?sort=, /?filter= can be useful.
Optimizing Crawl Budget
Example: Large websites with thousands of pages (like news sites or e-commerce platforms).
Use: You can prevent search engines from crawling unimportant pages (like login pages or dynamically generated pages) to ensure the bots focus on high-value content, which is essential for large websites with limited crawl budgets.
Blocking Access to Sensitive Directories or Files
Example: Directories containing internal documentation, backup files, or scripts that shouldn’t be publicly accessible.
Use: By disallowing directories such as /backup/, /scripts/, or /private/, you can add a layer of protection against accidental exposure.
Preventing Indexing of Multimedia Files or Specific File Types
Example: Websites with a lot of media files (like PDFs, images, videos) that don’t need to be indexed.
Use: You can block crawlers from indexing certain file types by specifying patterns, e.g., Disallow: /.pdf or Disallow: /.jpg. This helps you manage which content is prioritized by search engines.
Verify your robots.txt file
You can verify the presence of your robots.txt file simply by searching yourdomain/robots.txt. Here's a link to mine
The file will be displayed in the browser.
You can also use online tools like Google Search Console to verify that your robots.txt file is recognized. Search console has many other useful functions related to managing your presence in google search results.