By Shad Super in Questions —

What Best Practices Should Be Followed When Making Modifications to the robots.txt File Based on Findings From the robots.txt Report?

Summary

Modifying the robots.txt file based on findings from the robots.txt report involves understanding what changes are necessary to control search engine crawlers effectively. Following best practices ensures that you optimize your site's crawl efficiency without accidentally blocking important content.

Ensure Proper Syntax

The syntax of your robots.txt file must be correct to avoid misinterpretation by search engines. Use proper directives such as "User-agent", "Disallow", "Allow", "Crawl-delay", and "Sitemap". Here’s an example:

User-agent: *
Allow: /public-section/
Disallow: /private-section/

For comprehensive guidelines on the robots.txt syntax, refer to Google's official documentation on "Create a robots.txt file".

Block Non-Essential Pages

Avoid wasting crawl budget by blocking non-essential pages like admin pages, filters, or dynamic URLs that don't contribute value to search rankings. Examples include:

Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /wp-admin/

Moz provides a detailed guide on "The Beginner's Guide to SEO - robots.txt".

Allow Valuable Content

Ensure valuable and important content is accessible to crawlers. Avoid disallowing folders or resources critical for search engine optimization, such as CSS or JS files necessary for rendering. Example:

Allow: /wp-content/uploads/

Google Webmasters has an article on "Robots.txt specifications".

Utilize Crawl-Delay Directive

To manage server load, use the crawl-delay directive to slow down the rate at which search engines crawl your site, particularly for less powerful servers. Note that not all search engines support this directive. Example:

User-agent: *
Crawl-delay: 10

Learn more about managing crawl rates on Bing’s "How to manage crawl rate".

Keep Robots.txt File Accessible

Ensure your robots.txt file is easily accessible by placing it in the root directory of your domain and confirming that it is accessible at http://yourdomain.com/robots.txt. Double-check for server errors using tools like Google Search Console.

For more details on integrating and accessing your robots.txt file, refer to Google Search Central FAQ.

Regular Audits

Regularly audit your robots.txt file to ensure it reflects current site structure and content priorities, especially after significant site updates. Utilize tools like Google’s robots.txt tester available in the Google Search Console.

Use Sitemap Directive

Include a link to your XML sitemap in your robots.txt file to help search engines discover and crawl your important pages more efficiently. Example:

Sitemap: http://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml

Google provides guidance on using sitemaps in the "Build and submit a sitemap".

Conclusion

Effective robots.txt management involves using correct syntax, blocking non-essential pages, ensuring valuable content is crawlable, managing crawl rates, keeping the file accessible, performing regular audits, and using the sitemap directive. Following these best practices enhances your site's crawl efficiency and search engine performance.

References