Question 1

What is a robots.txt file?

Accepted Answer

A robots.txt file is a text file that webmasters create to instruct web robots (typically search engine robots) on how to crawl pages on their website. It's part of the Robots Exclusion Protocol(REP), a standard used to communicate with web crawlers and other web robots.

Question 2

Why should I use a robots.txt file?

Accepted Answer

Using a robots.txt file helps manage crawler traffic to your site and prevent your site from being overloaded with requests. It also helps control which pages are crawled by search engines, protect sensitive content, and optimize your crawl budget by preventing crawlers from accessing unnecessary pages.

Question 3

Where should I place my robots.txt file?

Accepted Answer

The robots.txt file must be placed in the root directory of your website. For example, if your website is www.example.com, the robots.txt file should be accessible at www.example.com/robots.txt. This is a standard location that all well-behaved web robots will check before crawling your site.

Question 4

What are the most important directives in robots.txt?

Accepted Answer

The most important directives are User-agent (specifies which robot the rules apply to), Disallow (specifies which pages/directories should not be crawled), Allow (specifies exceptions to Disallow), and Sitemap (points to your XML sitemap location). Each directive serves a specific purpose in controlling how search engines interact with your site.

Question 5

Can I use wildcards in robots.txt?

Accepted Answer

Yes, you can use wildcards (*) and end-of-string markers ($) in robots.txt. For example, *.pdf blocks all PDF files, and /private$ blocks URLs ending with "private". These pattern-matching tools help create more flexible and efficient crawling rules.

Question 6

How do I block all search engines?

Accepted Answer

To block all search engines, use: User-agent: * followed by Disallow: /. However, this is not recommended for most websites as it prevents search engine indexing and will make your site invisible in search results. Only use this if you have a specific reason to prevent all crawling.

Question 7

Will robots.txt prevent page indexing?

Accepted Answer

No, robots.txt only prevents crawling, not indexing. To prevent indexing, use meta robots tags or X-Robots-Tag HTTP headers with "noindex" directive. A page blocked by robots.txt might still be indexed if search engines find links to it from other sources.

Question 8

How often do search engines check robots.txt?

Accepted Answer

Major search engines like Google typically check robots.txt files every few days, but the frequency can vary. Changes to robots.txt may take several days to be recognized. The crawl frequency often depends on how frequently your site is updated and its overall authority.

Question 9

What is Crawl-delay directive?

Accepted Answer

Crawl-delay is a directive that specifies the number of seconds a crawler should wait between requests to your server. It helps manage server load but should be used carefully as it can slow down site indexing. Not all search engines honor this directive - Google, for example, ignores it in favor of its own crawl rate controls.

Question 10

Can I use comments in robots.txt?

Accepted Answer

Yes, you can add comments in robots.txt using the # symbol. Everything after # on that line will be ignored by crawlers. This is useful for documenting your rules and making the file more maintainable, especially when multiple people manage the website.

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