What is robots.txt and why is it important for a website?

Whenever we visit websites and read their information, a question comes to our mind – “Should we show everything on the website, or can some things be hidden?” over here robots.txt The file comes in handy. Today we are going to tell you robots.txt What is, how is it important for the website and what is its role in SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

What is robots.txt?

You must have often noticed that when you follow the URL of a website /robots.txt When you enter it, you see a text file, which contains many lines and instructions. this is it robots.txt File. It is written in a special language, which tells web crawlers (like Googlebot) which pages or content to index and which content to keep hidden.

Its purpose is to hide information on your website that you do not want to expose to search engines. This file acts as a sort of "master" of the website, dictating which pages search engines can index and which cannot.

What does robots.txt file do?

Robots.txt The file instructs search engines which pages on your website they should scan and index, and which pages they should skip. For example, you can block certain pages of your website, such as private pages or pages that are not relevant to search engines, disallow Can do so that those pages do not come in the index of search engines.

This file is especially important when the website contains sensitive information, or content that you do not want search engines to show in their search results.

What is the purpose of the robots.txt file?

Now the question arises that robots.txt What is the purpose of the file and why is it important for the website? First, it allows you to control the content on your website. You can use this file to decide which pages should be crawled by search engines and which pages should be skipped.

Other than this, robots.txt The second purpose of is that it can improve the loading speed of the website. If you have a lot of pages, you can instruct search engines not to scan certain pages, which will not affect the loading speed of your website.

What is the contribution of the robots.txt file in SEO?

For SEO robots.txt It is very important. It acts as a guide for search engines. In SEO, it tells search engines which pages of your website should be included in search results and which pages should be left out. if you robots.txt If used properly, the SEO ranking of your website can improve.

Correct use of robots.txt for SEO:

1. Block Sensitive Pages: It is necessary to hide some pages like the login page, private page, or admin page from search engines. you these disallow By doing this you can ensure that this page is not scanned by search engines.
2. Promote Blogs And Article Pages: Your blog and articles are important for search engines, because they help in your SEO ranking. these pages allow By doing this you can ensure that search engines can index them.
3. Add Sitemap: Your robots.txt You can also add a link to the site map in the file so that the search engine can correctly locate all the pages of your website.

Why is robots.txt file important?

By now we have understood that robots.txt is the function of a file, but what is its importance? for a website, robots.txt Is important for several reasons:

1. SEO improvement: It signals to the search engine which pages to scan and which not so that the search engine can better understand the content of your website.
2. Page SecurityHiding some pages from search engines provides you with security. If you do not want your pages to appear in search engine results, you can disallow Can do.
3. Increase Website Speed: when you robots.txt If you use the file correctly, it can improve the speed of your website, as search engines will not scan certain pages.
4. Increase search engine understanding: This gives search engines more information about your website, and what is important and what is not.

What should be written in robots.txt?

Now that we know robots.txt What is it and what is its importance, then the question comes what should be written in this file?

Allow and Disallow instructions: First of all, you have to tell which pages to allow the search engine to crawl and which not. For example:

User-agent: *

Disallow: /private/

This means that all search engines (User-agent: *) are not allowed to crawl the "/private/" page.

Sitemap link:It is also important that you robots.txt Add a link to the site map in the file so that search engines can easily find all the pages of your website.

Sitemap: http://www.example.com/sitemap.xml

Conclusion

So friends, today we learned about robots.txt What is it and why is it important for the website? Through this file, you can tell the search engine which pages of your website should be scanned and which pages should be skipped. Proper use of this file can improve the SEO of your website and help you get a better ranking.

In a smart way robots.txt By using this you can optimize your website for search engines.