WordPress robots.txt are essential elements that decide your website’s visibility to the crawlers and spiders of the search engines.
Therefore, it becomes necessary to be mindful to not make any mistakes and if you see any, correct them as soon as possible.
If you are wondering why, then this blog is going to help you figure out what is robots.txt, common WordPress robots.txt mistakes, and their solutions.
What is a Robots.Txt File?
The Robots.txt file is a simple text file that is found in the root directory of your website.
Simply put, it acts as a security guard for your website which directs website crawlers where they are permitted and where they are not.
You might be wondering how it works. It’s simple; every search engine has bots or spiders that crawl through websites to index them.
Now, robots.txt helps them to understand which pages they are allowed to crawl and which are restricted from them.
Example:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /private/
The asterisk indicates bots and is disallowed from entering the “private directory”.
How is WordPress Robots.Txt Important for SEO?
There are many ways in which robots.txt helps with SEO.
- Help crawlers focus on the right pages and save time by restricting them from crawling admin panels or unnecessary scripts.
- Prevents bots from indexing pages that hold no SEO value like the login page, cart page, etc.
- Help focus on value pages like blogs, landing pages, product pages, etc.
Why WordPress Users Overlook or Misuse WordPress Robots.Txt?
One main reason why robots.txt is overlooked is because it is not seen in plain visibility.
It doesn’t catch your attention as themes or plugins do in the WordPress dashboard.
So most times people unknowingly ignore it and do not exactly know what it does. Let’s look into some other reasons:
- WordPress creates virtual robots.txt files but these are generic. These generic robots.txt will not help cater to the unique needs of blogs, e-commerce sites, etc.
- Plugins like RankMath help in editing these robots.txt but if you have no technical understanding, then it might result in errors.
- People copy robots.txt from StackOverflow and paste it to their websites. This might negatively affect your site’s standing as what works for one may not work for another.
- The negative results of a wrong robots.txt may not be instantly visible. You will start noticing it when there’s a drop in your search rankings on Google.
Common WordPress Robots.txt Mistakes and Simple Solutions
Mistake #1: Blocking Important Pages or Directories
You can clean up the sites in such a way that you can guide the bots to crawl through specific pages.
But sometimes while doing this restriction, you might end up slamming the door on your most important content as well.
User-agent: *
Disallow: /wp-content/
While this might look harmless, it kind of stops indexing all your important pages from the reach of your targeted audience.
If they aren’t getting any access to content like images, stylesheets, and scripts that are in /wp-content/; you will end up having pages that fail to load, miss important elements, and affect your rankings.
The solution:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php
Sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml
Mistake #2: Incorrect Use of Wildcards
WordPress robots.txt looks normal but if you add in a few wildcards, it gives the impression of a complex code. Wildcards are nothing but symbols and patterns, a wrong misstep, the entire thing will go for a toss.
Let’s look at one example:
Disallow: /blog*
By adding this robots.txt you are blocking anything that starts with “/blog”. This will include /blogposts, /blog-categories, etc.
There goes your entire blog section.
The solution to using the asterisk incorrectly is to target the specific folder and be precise:
Disallow: /blog-temp/
Mistake #3: Blocking Search Engines Completely
You write a blog with excellent research and then you realize that it is not showing up anywhere in Google.
Well done! You have messed up your WordPress robots.txt thus restricting the search engines from crawling through your website completely.
User-agent: *
Disallow: /
Solution:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php
Sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml
Mistake #4: If Robots.txt is Not in Your Root Directory
Search engines can only find you if robots.txt is present in your root directory.
Your WordPress robots.txt should be found here:
https://yourdomain.com/robots.txt
Your robots.txt should not be in:
https://yourdomain.com/blog/robots.txt
https://yourdomain.com/wp-content/robots.txt
https://yourdomain.com/some-folder/robots.txt
If your robots.txt is not in the root directory, then the bots will come to the conclusion that there is no specific route for the crawlers to move around.
Mistake #5: No XML Sitemap URL
Having no XML sitemap URL is similar to sending a package to someone without an address.
An XML sitemap is a structured list of all your website’s important URLs. Search engines use it to understand your website’s structure, access your new content faster, and prioritize what to crawl.
As you have seen in the above examples, add:
Sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml
Best Practices for an Effective Robots.txt File
Conclusion
WordPress robots.txt is a prerequisite to ensure your website and its content are visible to your targeted audience. While dealing with robots.txt, one needs to be extra careful as you may end up shutting off your website to the search engines.
FAQs
- Can a bad robots.txt file get my site deindexed?
Yes, if you block / or key content paths, it can prevent Google from indexing your site.
- Should I block wp-admin in robots.txt?
Yes, typically—but allow access to admin-ajax.php for functionality.
- Do I need a WordPress robots.txt if I already use noindex tags?
Both serve different purposes. Robots.txt controls crawling; noindex controls indexing.
- Where do I place my robots.txt file in WordPress?
It goes into the root directory—yourdomain.com/robots.txt
- How often should I update my robots.txt file?
Whenever your site structure changes or you add major new content types.
