Ensure your robots.txt file is correctly configured to control how search engines crawl your website. Enter your website URL below to validate your robots.txt file.
A robots.txt file is a text file that website owners create to instruct web robots (typically search engine crawlers) how to crawl pages on their website. The robots.txt file is part of the Robots Exclusion Protocol (REP), a group of web standards that regulate how robots crawl the web, access and index content, and serve that content up to users.
A properly configured robots.txt file helps you:
Directive | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
User-agent: | Specifies which robot the rules apply to | User-agent: Googlebot |
Disallow: | Tells the robot not to visit specified pages | Disallow: /private/ |
Allow: | Tells the robot it can access a page or subfolder even if its parent directory is disallowed | Allow: /private/public.html |
Sitemap: | Tells search engines where to find your sitemap | Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml |
Crawl-delay: | Specifies a delay between crawler requests (not supported by all crawlers) | Crawl-delay: 10 |
Even small errors in your robots.txt file can lead to unexpected crawling behavior. Our validator checks for these common issues:
User-agent: * Disallow: /
which blocks all search engines from your entire siteUser-agent: *
Disallow: /private/
Allow: /private/public.html
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml
*
Disallow: /*.pdf
can have unintended consequencesWhile not mandatory, a robots.txt file is highly recommended for most websites. Without one, search engines will attempt to crawl your entire site, which might not be optimal for your SEO strategy or server resources.
While you can use robots.txt to request search engines not to crawl your site, it doesn't guarantee your site won't be indexed. For complete exclusion from search results, use the noindex meta tag or HTTP header.
Major search engines like Google typically check a site's robots.txt file each time they crawl the site, which can be daily for active sites. However, changes might not be recognized immediately.
If a search engine can't access your robots.txt file (e.g., it returns a 5xx error), most search engines will assume they shouldn't crawl your site at all. If it returns a 4xx error, they'll typically proceed to crawl your site without restrictions.
A properly configured robots.txt file is an essential part of your website's SEO strategy. Regularly validate your robots.txt file to ensure search engines can properly crawl your website and index your important content.