Robots.txt is a text file located in the root directory of a website that provides instructions to search engine crawlers about which pages or directories should be crawled or excluded from crawling. It serves as a set of guidelines for search engine bots, helping them understand how to navigate and crawl the website more efficiently. Website owners can use robots.txt to prevent search engines from indexing sensitive or duplicate content, such as login pages, admin directories, or staging environments, as well as to prioritize crawling of important pages or sections of the website.
Creating a robots.txt file involves specifying rules and directives using a simple syntax that instructs search engine crawlers on how to interact with the website. For example, website owners can use the “Disallow” directive to prevent search engines from crawling specific pages or directories, or the “Allow” directive to grant access to certain resources while excluding others. It’s important to note that robots.txt is a publicly accessible file, so sensitive information should not be included in it.
Also see: Black hat SEO, Gray hat SEO, Penalty recovery, Duplicate content, Thin content, Content silos, Site architecture, Internal site search, Local SEO, Google My Business, Online reviews, NAP consistency, Citation building, Local citations, Google Maps optimization
