What Is Robots.txt and Do You Need One in 2026?
2026-07-12•5 min read
A robots.txt file instructs search engine crawler bots on which pages or directories of a site they should not visit. It is a critical file for crawler bandwidth management.
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Key Robots.txt Directives
- User-Agent
- Specifies which crawler bot the rule applies to.
- Disallow
- Lists path URLs blocked from crawling.
- Allow
- Overrides disallow paths for specific subfolders.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can robots.txt stop pages from indexing?
No, a robots.txt only stops bots from crawling. If a page has external links pointing to it, search engines may still index it.
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