Robots.txt Generator
Create a proper robots.txt file to control how search engines crawl your website. Use our visual builder with pre-made templates, real-time validation, and SEO best practices to optimize your site's crawling and indexing.
Robots.txt Generator
Configuration
Generated robots.txt
How to Use robots.txt
📁 File Placement
- • Upload to your website's root directory
- • Access at: https://yoursite.com/robots.txt
- • Must be named exactly "robots.txt"
- • Use UTF-8 encoding
🤖 User Agents
- • "*" applies to all crawlers
- • Specify individual crawlers by name
- • Case-sensitive matching
- • More specific rules take precedence
📝 Directives
- • Allow: Explicitly permit crawling
- • Disallow: Block crawler access
- • Crawl-delay: Set crawling speed
- • Sitemap: Specify sitemap location
What is robots.txt?
🤖 Crawler Control
Direct search engine bots on how to crawl your site
- • Control which pages get indexed
- • Block sensitive directories
- • Manage crawl budget efficiently
- • Prevent duplicate content issues
📄 File Location
Must be placed in your website's root directory
- • Access: yoursite.com/robots.txt
- • Case-sensitive filename
- • UTF-8 text encoding
- • Publicly accessible to crawlers
⚡ SEO Benefits
Improve your site's search engine optimization
- • Better crawl budget allocation
- • Prevent indexing of low-value pages
- • Faster site discovery
- • Enhanced sitemap integration
Best Practices
✅ Do's
- Place robots.txt in the root directory
- Use specific paths for better control
- Include your sitemap URL
- Test with Google's robots.txt tester
- Keep the file simple and readable
- Use comments to explain complex rules
- Allow access to CSS and JavaScript files
- Update regularly as your site evolves
❌ Don'ts
- Don't use robots.txt as a security measure
- Avoid blocking important content accidentally
- Don't block CSS/JS files unless necessary
- Avoid overly complex wildcard patterns
- Don't include sensitive information
- Avoid blocking the entire site with "/"
- Don't forget to update after site changes
- Avoid using robots.txt for removed pages
Common Use Cases
🛒 E-commerce Sites
- Block shopping cart and checkout pages
- Prevent indexing of user accounts
- Block search result pages
- Exclude filter and sort parameters
📰 Blog & News Sites
- Block admin and login areas
- Exclude draft and preview content
- Prevent crawling of search pages
- Block comment feed URLs
🏢 Business Websites
- Block private directories
- Exclude internal tools and dashboards
- Prevent indexing of test pages
- Block file directories and uploads
Directive Reference
📝 Core Directives
User-agent:Specifies which crawler the rules apply to
Disallow:Blocks crawlers from accessing specified paths
Allow:Explicitly permits access to specific paths
Crawl-delay:Sets delay between requests in seconds
🔧 Advanced Features
Sitemap:Specifies the location of your sitemap
*Wildcard matching any characters
$End-of-URL pattern matching
# CommentsAdd explanatory comments to your file
Testing & Validation
🔍 Google Tools
- Google Search Console robots.txt Tester
- URL Inspection Tool
- Coverage Report
- Sitemaps Report
✅ Validation Steps
- Check file accessibility
- Verify syntax and formatting
- Test specific URL paths
- Monitor crawl errors
📊 Monitoring
- Track crawl statistics
- Monitor blocked resources
- Check for unintended blocks
- Review indexing performance
Frequently Asked Questions
Does robots.txt guarantee that pages won't be indexed?
No, robots.txt is a directive, not a guarantee. Search engines may still index URLs they discover through other means. Use noindex meta tags or HTTP headers for stronger indexing control.
Can I have multiple robots.txt files?
No, only one robots.txt file per domain/subdomain in the root directory. Subdirectories cannot have their own robots.txt files.
How often do search engines check robots.txt?
Search engines typically cache robots.txt for 24 hours. Changes may take up to a day to take effect, though some crawlers check more frequently.
What happens if I don't have a robots.txt file?
Without a robots.txt file, search engines will crawl all accessible content on your site. This isn't necessarily bad, but having one gives you better control over crawling behavior.