{"id":879,"date":"2022-03-28T08:23:49","date_gmt":"2022-03-28T08:23:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/easyschema.com\/blog\/?p=879"},"modified":"2022-03-28T08:26:45","modified_gmt":"2022-03-28T08:26:45","slug":"robots-txt-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/easyschema.com\/blog\/robots-txt-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-works\/","title":{"rendered":"Robots.txt: What is it, and how does it works?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robots.txt is a simple and short text file stored in the root directory of a domain that instructs search engine crawlers like Googlebot, what they are allowed to crawl on your site.<\/span><\/p>\n

In SEO, robots.txt helps crawl the pages of high importance first, preventing them from visiting the ‘second-hand’ pages. To accomplish that, robots.txt excludes entire domains, one or more subdirectories or individual files, and even complete directories from search engine crawling.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, this simple text file doesn’t controls crawling and integrates a link to your Sitemap. This gives website crawlers an overall view of the current URLs that exist in your domain.<\/span><\/p>\n

That’s what a robots.txt file looks like:<\/span><\/p>\n

As we mentioned a little earlier, you can find robots.txt at any domain homepage by simply adding “\/robots.txt” at the end.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here is an example of an actual, working robots.txt file:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

https:\/\/yourdomain.com\/robots.txt<\/code><\/pre>\n
Don’t forget that the robots.txt file is a public folder that you can find on nearly every website, such as Facebook, Apple, and even Amazon. Robots.txt is the first document that search engine crawlers open when visiting your website. You should also know that robots.txt is weak in protection against unauthorized access.<\/span><\/p>\n
Why is a robots.txt file important?<\/span><\/h3>\n
The fundamental purpose of the robots.txt file is to show website crawlers the area on your website they have access to and show them how they should interact with all pages. Search engines have to find your web pages before they end up in search results; that’s why your website’s content needs to be crawled and indexed first.
\n<\/span>But in some cases, it’s better to ban crawlers from visiting specific pages such as empty pages, login pages (for your website), and so on. That’s why we need to use a robots.txt file, as it is always checked by web crawlers right before they start crawling the website as a whole.
\n<\/span>Another thing to consider is that robots.txt is only used to prevent search engines from crawling, not indexing.
\n<\/span>Even though website crawlers might not have access to a particular page, search engines may continue to index it if external links are directed.
\n<\/span>Besides this primary purpose of the robots.txt file, many other SEO benefits can be beneficial in different situations.<\/span><\/p>\n
First, they can optimize the crawl budget.<\/strong><\/p>\n
The crawl budget indicates the total number of pages that website crawlers (e.g., Googlebot) will crawl within a specific amount of time.<\/span><\/p>\n
Some larger websites contain dozens of unimportant pages that do not need to be indexed or crawled, and robots.txt tells search engines the exact pages to crawl. So, using the robots.txt file optimizes the crawling frequency and efficiently helps page indexes.<\/span><\/p>\n
Second. They can manage duplicate content.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Robots.txt can prevent the crawling of similar or duplicate content on your web pages. As you now know, there are a lot of websites that contain forms of the same content. These pages can be www vs. non-www pages, URL parameters (HTTP encryption) and identical PDF files, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n
You can avoid crawling these pages by using the robots.txt file to point them out. So, by using robots.txt, you can manage content that is unnecessary to be crawled, helping the search engine crawl only pages you want to appear in SERPs.<\/span><\/p>\n
Third. They can prevent servers from overloading.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Using the robots.txt file can prevent your website server from crashing. Website crawlers such as Googlebot are known for their ability to determine how fast your website should crawl, regardless of your website server capacity. However, sometimes you can get bothered by how often specific web crawlers visit your site, and you may probably want to block them. The urge to block some bots comes when a lousy bot overloads your website with requests or when block scrapers try to copy all your site’s content, which can cause a lot of site issues.<\/span><\/p>\n
It is essential to use robots.txt because it tells web crawlers the specific pages to turn their focus. In this way, the other pages of your website will be left alone, which will prevent the site from overloading.<\/span><\/p>\n
How does a robots.txt file work?<\/span><\/h3>\n
The fundamental principles that indicate how a robots.txt file works consist of 2 essential elements. Both elements are related tight to each other, and they dictate a specific website crawler to do something (user-agents) and what they should do (directives).<\/span><\/p>\n
User agents specify which will direct web crawlers to crawl or avoid crawling certain pages, whereas directives indicate user agents should do with these pages.<\/span><\/p>\n
This is what they look like:<\/span><\/p>\n
User-agent: Googlebot\nDisallow: \/wp-admin\/<\/code><\/pre>\n
Down below, you have an in-depth survey on these two elements.<\/span><\/p>\n