What is Robots.txt file? Information and Guide before creating the Robots.txt

The robots.txt file is a simple and powerful file that directs and guides search engine crawlers which pages in the website have to crawl and index. The purpose of using this file is to manage spider traffic and prevent too many requests from the search engine spider from overloading your site. The robots.txt file is not for maintaining the pages out of search results but to guide search engines on which pages they are allowed to spider and index. In some cases, pages that are blocked in the robots.txt file can still be shown in search results. To know the depth and detail, let's dive into details.

Example:
user-agent: * (all the search engine crawlers)
Disallow: /
user-agent: bingo
Allow: /

What is a Robots.txt file used for?

A robots.txt file directs how search engines like Google, Bingo, etc. spider your site. It’s used to block certain files from being listed/live, depending on file type:

Robots.txt Impact on Different Types of File.

Web Pages (HTML, PDFs, etc.):

The robots.txt file is used to manage crawling traffic on site, thinking a request from the spider may overload the server. It can also block unimportant pages that you don't want to publish.

Remember: If other sites or pages are linked to your blocked pages, Google can still list the pages without visiting your sites, so the pages blocked by the robots.txt file can still be shown on the search engine results without a description. Any images, videos, or PDFs on that page will not be crawled unless they are linked from another unblocked page or site. If you want to hide and block entirely, try other alternative methods.

Media Files:

Use the robots.txt file to block media files like images, videos, and audio from being crawled and shown in search engine results. However, this won't stop other pages and people from linking those media files.

Resource files:

You can block certain resource files—scripts, styles, and images—that you think are not important, and the page will still work well without them. However, if the absence of these resource files makes Google difficult to analyze and read your page, it may be better not to block the resource file.

Why Robots.txt is important in SEO?

Robots.txt are important for the proper function and management of websites and optimizing performance in search engines. This file serves different purposes, making it an integral component of web development and search engine optimization. The brief explanation of why robots.txt is so important is as follows:

1. Crawl Control:

Robots.txt are mainly used to direct how search engine crawlers, also called bots and spiders, interact with the website. By giving which parts of the side will be crawled and ignored, the webmaster can decide how search engines access and index their content. This control is important for many reasons.

i. Highlighting the key content:

The webmaster can direct the search engine crawlers to the important pages and parts of their website; this ensures that the given content is indexed faster and ranks standout in search engine results.

ii. Resource Management:

By blocking the crawler from accessing unnecessary and unimportant files and pages. A website can save server resources and reduce unnecessary traffic, helping the pages to load faster and improve the user experience.

2. Content Protection:

Robots.txt helps to protect sensitive and confidential information and content. For example, login pages, internal administration areas, and some private and crucial databases may not be allowed from indexing, which protects them from being shown in search engine results.

3. Duplicate content control:

One of the serious issues in SEO is duplicate content, which can harm website ranking. The robots.txt file helps to control this issue by directing the search engines to the main version of the content and blocking indexing many copies found in different locations.

4. Optimize crawl budget:

Google has a limit on how many pages it will crawl on your site within a certain time called crawl budget. This number can fluctuate based on the site's size, health, and backlinks. If the site has more pages than the site's crawl budget, some important pages that you want to index may not be indexed and won't appear in the search result. By blocking not important pages with robots.txt, Googlebot can use more crawl budget on the pages that are important.

5. Prevent unintentional indexing:

Robots.txt helps to avoid unintentional indexing files or directories that are not meant for public use and are unfriendly, like backup files, confidential files, and development files. It is important to keep the site clean and have a professional online presence.

6. Hide Resources:

Sometimes you want to hide resources like PDFs, videos, and images from search results to keep them private or direct Google focus on other important files; in this case, robots.txt keeps them from being crawled.

7. Enhancing website structure:

By shaping how search engines crawl and index content, robots.txt files help to build better website structure. They make sure that the website's structure is properly accepted by search engines, which is important and needed for delivering a friendly experience and optimizing rankings.

8. Improving user experience:

By directing what search engines index, robots.txt indirectly effects user experience. Blocking search engines from crawling unnecessary pages and resources leads to faster page loading time, which is an important factor for keeping and engaging a website's visitors.

Know the limits of robots.txt

Before creating a robots.txt file, understand its limitations. Depending on your objective and circumstances, you may like to explore alternative methods to ensure your pages are hidden from search engine results.

All the search engines may not obey the robots.txt file command:

Google and other trusted search engines may obey the robots.txt file command, but others may not. It is in the hands of the spider to obey the command in the robots.txt file, and the robots.txt file command cannot enforce spider behavior on your site. For better security, to keep information secure from spiders, use password protection for sensitive content.

Various web spiders read syntax in different ways:

Different spiders have different rules, while trusted web spiders obey the command in a robots.txt file. Each crawler may read those commands differently. Make sure you used the correct and proper syntax for each type of spider.

A page that's blocked in robots.txt can still show up in search results if other websites link to it:

Even if you block a URL or page in robots.txt, it could still show up in Google search results if other sites link to it. Google might not crawl and index the file or pages, but it might still get the result and display it along with things like link text from other sites. For to hide fully, apply other alternative methods like password protection or noindex tag.

The robots.txt file is a valuable file for managing how search engines crawl and index a website. It helps control the visibility of certain files and pages, optimizing server resources and enhancing SEO by prioritizing key content, protecting sensitive data, and preventing duplicate content issues. However, robots.txt cannot guarantee complete invisibility of blocked pages if other sites link to them, and not all crawlers obey its directives. For full content protection, consider combining robots.txt with methods like password protection and noindex tags.