robots. txt is completely optional. If you have one, standards-compliant crawlers will respect it, if you have none, everything not disallowed in HTML-META elements (Wikipedia) is crawlable. Site will be indexed without limitations.

Besides, What happens if you dont follow robots txt?

3 Answers. The Robot Exclusion Standard is purely advisory, it’s completely up to you if you follow it or not, and if you aren’t doing something nasty chances are that nothing will happen if you choose to ignore it.

Keeping this in mind, Does every site have a robots txt file? Most websites don’t need a robots. txt file. That’s because Google can usually find and index all of the important pages on your site. And they’ll automatically NOT index pages that aren’t important or duplicate versions of other pages.

Can I delete robots txt?

You need to remove both lines from your robots. txt file. The robots file is located in the root directory of your web hosting folder, this normally can be found in /public_html/ and you should be able to edit or delete this file using: FTP using a FTP client such as FileZilla or WinSCP.

What will disallow robots txt?

txt file applies to all web robots that visit the site. The slash after “Disallow” tells the robot to not visit any pages on the site. You might be wondering why anyone would want to stop web robots from visiting their site.

Is violating robots txt illegal?

There is no law stating that /robots. txt must be obeyed, nor does it constitute a binding contract between site owner and user, but having a /robots. txt can be relevant in legal cases. Obviously, IANAL, and if you need legal advice, obtain professional services from a qualified lawyer.

How do I know if a site has robots txt?


Test your robots.


txt file

  1. Open the tester tool for your site, and scroll through the robots. …
  2. Type in the URL of a page on your site in the text box at the bottom of the page.
  3. Select the user-agent you want to simulate in the dropdown list to the right of the text box.
  4. Click the TEST button to test access.

Where is the robots txt file on a website?

The robots. txt file must be located at the root of the website host to which it applies. For instance, to control crawling on all URLs below https://www.example.com/ , the robots. txt file must be located at https://www.example.com/robots.txt .

How do I use robots txt in my website?

If you want your robots. txt file to be found, you have to place it in the main directory of your site. The disallow instructions are required so that search engine bots understand your intent. Always place your sitemaps at the bottom of your robots.

How do I remove robots txt from a website?

Google supports the noindex directive, so if you specify a page using the Noindex directive within a robots. txt you can then login to Google Webmaster Tools go to Site Configuration > Crawler Access > Remove URL and ask them to remove it.

Does Google respect robots txt?

Google officially announced that GoogleBot will no longer obey a Robots. txt directive related to indexing. Publishers relying on the robots. txt noindex directive have until September 1, 2019 to remove it and begin using an alternative.

How do I turn off all in robots txt?

Or you can put this into your robots. txt file to allow all: User-agent: * Disallow: This is interpreted as disallowing nothing, so effectively everything is allowed.

What are the conditions that the robots txt must have for it to work properly?


There are three basic conditions that robots need to follow:

  • Full Allow: robot is allowed to crawl through all content in the website.
  • Full Disallow: no content is allowed for crawling.
  • Conditional Allow: directives are given to the robots. txt to determine specific content to be crawled.

What should you block in a robots txt file and what should you allow?

Robots. txt is a text file that webmasters create to teach robots how to crawl website pages and lets crawlers know whether to access a file or not. You may want to block urls in robots txt to keep Google from indexing private photos, expired special offers or other pages that you’re not ready for users to access.

How can we stop robots?

How to disallow specific bots. If you just want to block one specific bot from crawling, then you do it like this: User-agent: Bingbot Disallow: / User-agent: * Disallow: This will block Bing’s search engine bot from crawling your site, but other bots will be allowed to crawl everything.

Do subdomains need robots txt?

3 Answers. Each subdomain is generally treated as a separate site and requires their own robots. txt file.

How do you know if a website is crawlable?


About the URL Inspection tool

  1. See the current index status of a URL: Retrieve information about Google’s indexed version of your page. …
  2. Inspect a live URL: Test whether a page on your site is able to be indexed.
  3. Request indexing for a URL: You can request that an URL be crawled (or recrawled) by Google.

How do I find robots txt in WordPress?


Create or edit robots.


txt in the WordPress Dashboard

  1. Log in to your WordPress website. When you’re logged in, you will be in your ‘Dashboard’.
  2. Click on ‘SEO’. On the left-hand side, you will see a menu. …
  3. Click on ‘Tools’. …
  4. Click on ‘File Editor’. …
  5. Make the changes to your file.
  6. Save your changes.

Where is the robot txt file in WordPress?

Robots. txt is a text file located in your root WordPress directory. You can access it by opening the your-website.com/robots.txt URL in your browser.

Where is robots txt located in WordPress?

Robots. txt is a text file located in your root WordPress directory. You can access it by opening the your-website.com/robots.txt URL in your browser.

How do I find the sitemap of a website?


Contents

  1. What does a sitemap look like?
  2. #1: Manually check common XML sitemap locations.
  3. #2: Check the robots.txt file.
  4. #3: Use Google Search Operators.
  5. #4: Check Google Search Console.
  6. #5: Check Bing Webmaster Tools.
  7. #6: Use the SEO Site Checkup tool.
  8. #7: Check the CMS of the website.

How do I find robots txt in WordPress?

Simply connect to your WordPress hosting account using an FTP client. Once inside, you will be able to see the robots. txt file in your website’s root folder. If you don’t see one, then you likely don’t have a robots.

How do I enable robots txt?

Simply type in your root domain, then add /robots. txt to the end of the URL. For instance, Moz’s robots file is located at moz.com/robots.txt.

How do I add robots txt to WordPress?


Create or edit robots.


txt in the WordPress Dashboard

  1. Log in to your WordPress website. When you’re logged in, you will be in your ‘Dashboard’.
  2. Click on ‘SEO’. On the left-hand side, you will see a menu. …
  3. Click on ‘Tools’. …
  4. Click on ‘File Editor’. …
  5. Make the changes to your file.
  6. Save your changes.

How do I create a robots txt file?

Open Notepad, Microsoft Word or any text editor and save the file as ‘robots,’ all lowercase, making sure to choose . txt as the file type extension (in Word, choose ‘Plain Text’ ).