Robots.txt Tester

A robots.txt file is a plain text file located in the root directory of a website that provides instructions to web crawlers about which pages or sections of the site they are allowed to access or index. This file adheres to the "robot exclusion protocol" and is crucial for controlling automated access to a site.

Creating a robots.txt file can be done easily using various online generators or manually by writing it in a text editor. Once created, upload it to the root directory of your website via FTP. Robots Generator is a free tool that can help you create a robots.txt file.

Robots.txt helps you control how search engines crawl your site, which can impact your SEO. It can prevent search engines from accessing non-public pages, conserve crawl budget, and help manage duplicate content.

When a web crawler visits a site, it first checks for the robots.txt file to determine which areas it can crawl. If the file allows access, the crawler will continue to index the site; if it disallows certain paths, those areas will be ignored. The basic syntax includes directives like User-agent (to specify which crawler the rule applies to) and Disallow (to indicate which pages should not be crawled).

If a website does not have a robots.txt file, search engines will typically index all accessible content without any restrictions. This means that all pages can be crawled and indexed unless there are other directives in place, such as HTML meta tags that prevent indexing.