Free Tool

Free Robots.txt Generator

Create a properly formatted robots.txt file for your website in seconds. Control how search engine bots crawl your site, block private directories, and add your sitemap URL.

Search Engine Rules

What Is a Robots.txt File?

A robots.txt file is a text file placed at the root of your website that tells search engine crawlers which pages or sections they should or should not visit. It's part of the Robots Exclusion Protocol, a standard used by all major search engines.

While robots.txt doesn't prevent pages from being indexed (use a noindex meta tag for that), it helps manage crawl budget — especially important for large websites where you want search engines to focus on your most important pages.

  • Controls which bots can access which parts of your site
  • Helps manage crawl budget for large websites
  • Points search engines to your XML sitemap
  • Can block AI training bots from scraping your content

Common Robots.txt Mistakes to Avoid

A misconfigured robots.txt can accidentally block search engines from indexing your entire site. Here are the most common mistakes and how to avoid them:

  • Don't block CSS/JS files — Google needs these to render your pages properly
  • Don't use robots.txt for security — It doesn't prevent access, only crawling
  • Always include a sitemap directive — Helps search engines find all your pages
  • Test before deploying — Use Google Search Console's robots.txt tester

After generating your robots.txt, run a free SEO audit to verify your site's crawlability and overall SEO health.

Frequently Asked Questions

The robots.txt file must be placed in the root directory of your website, accessible at https://yourdomain.com/robots.txt. It must be a plain text file — not HTML. Most web hosting control panels allow you to upload files to the root directory.
No. Robots.txt only prevents crawling, not indexing. If other sites link to a blocked page, Google may still index it with limited information. To prevent indexing, use a "noindex" meta tag or X-Robots-Tag HTTP header instead.
It depends on your goals. Blocking AI training bots (GPTBot, Google-Extended, CCBot) prevents your content from being used to train AI models. However, some AI bots also power AI search features (like ChatGPT Browse) that can send you traffic. Consider blocking training bots while allowing search-related ones.

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