What is Robots Txt

A guide to robots.txt: what it is and how it works, with an example of how to use it to control website indexing.

What is Robots.txt?

Robots.txt is a text file that can be used to give instructions to web crawlers or robots that index websites. It is part of the Robots Exclusion Protocol, a standard used by websites to communicate with web crawlers and other web robots. The file is used to control which parts of a website should be crawled by the robots and which should be ignored. The robots.txt file can be used to specify which web pages are accessible to web crawlers, and which are not.

The robots.txt can be used to limit access to certain web pages that should not be indexed, such as pages that are password-protected or pages that contain sensitive information. It can also be used to block certain types of web crawlers from accessing certain parts of a website. For example, a webmaster can use the robots.txt file to block search engine crawlers from indexing certain pages.

The robots.txt file is a text file that is placed in the root directory of a website. It is written in a specific format and must follow certain rules. Here is an example of a robots.txt file:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /private
Disallow: /admin
Disallow: /cgi-bin
Disallow: /tmp

This robots.txt file tells web crawlers that they should not access any of the following directories: /private, /admin, /cgi-bin, and /tmp. The asterisk (*) indicates that this rule applies to all web crawlers.

Robots.txt is an important tool for webmasters to control how web crawlers access and index their websites. It can be used to limit access to certain parts of a website and to ensure that sensitive information is not indexed by search engines.