Professional robots.txt file generator - create online for free
Free online robots.txt file generator with ready templates for different website types. Create correct robots.txt for WordPress, e-commerce, blogs with optimal settings for search engine optimization.
What is robots.txt and its role in SEO
Primary purpose: robots.txt is a text file placed in the root directory of a website (example.com/robots.txt) that contains instructions for search robots regarding crawling and indexing of pages. The file helps control which parts of the website should be available for indexing.
Importance for SEO: A properly configured robots.txt improves the efficiency of website crawling by search robots, saves crawl budget, prevents indexing of duplicate content and service pages. This is especially important for large websites with thousands of pages.
Syntax and structure of robots.txt in 2025
Basic structure: The file consists of rule blocks, each starting with a User-agent directive that specifies which robot the following rules apply to. This is followed by Disallow (prohibition) and Allow (permission) directives with corresponding paths.
User-agent directive: Specifies a specific robot or group of robots. The "*" symbol means all robots. You can create separate rules for Googlebot, Bingbot, YandexBot and others. Rules are applied according to the principle of first match.
Disallow and Allow rules: Disallow prohibits access to the specified path and all subdirectories. Allow creates an exception for prohibited paths. An empty Disallow value means permission to access the entire website.
Specialized robots.txt templates
WordPress websites: The standard template blocks access to administrative directories (/wp-admin/, /wp-includes/), plugins and themes, but allows indexing of uploaded files. It's important to allow access to admin-ajax.php for correct AJAX requests.
Online stores: For e-commerce websites, it's critically important to prohibit indexing of the cart, checkout pages, user accounts and search pages with parameters. This prevents creation of duplicates and indexing of private information.
Blogs and news websites: Focus on protecting admin sections, article drafts and filter pages. Access to public categories, tags and archives is allowed for better content indexing.
Advanced features and directives
Sitemap directive: Specifies the location of the XML sitemap, which helps search robots find and index all important pages. You can specify multiple sitemap files for different website sections.
Crawl-delay: Sets a delay between robot requests in seconds. Useful for servers with limited resources or when needing to control load. Not supported by all search systems.
Using wildcards: The "*" symbol allows creating masks for group blocking of files with certain extensions or parameters. For example, Disallow: /*.pdf$ blocks all PDF files.
Common mistakes and their prevention
Incorrect placement: The file must be placed exactly at domain.com/robots.txt in the root directory. Placement in subdirectories doesn't work. The filename is case-sensitive - use only lowercase letters.
Syntax errors: Each directive must be on a separate line. Spaces around the colon are not allowed. Avoid empty lines within rule blocks. Comments start with the "#" symbol.
Too strict restrictions: Blocking the entire website (Disallow: /) can lead to complete exclusion from the index. Be careful when blocking important website sections like product catalogs or blog articles.
Testing and validation of robots.txt
Google Search Console: Use the robots.txt testing tool to verify syntax correctness and test access to specific URLs. The tool shows how Google interprets your rules.
Regular checking: After website updates or URL structure changes, always check the relevance of robots.txt rules. Outdated rules may block important new website sections.
Indexing monitoring: Monitor in Search Console whether new blocked pages have appeared. Sometimes CMS updates can change URL structure, requiring robots.txt correction.
Mobile indexing and robots.txt
Mobile-first indexing: With Google's transition to mobile indexing, it's important to ensure that robots.txt doesn't block resources necessary for correct display of the mobile website version. This includes CSS, JavaScript and images.
Responsive design: For responsive websites, usually one robots.txt file is sufficient. For separate mobile versions (m.site.com), a separate file with corresponding rules may be needed.
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