Question 1

What is robots.txt?

Accepted Answer

robots.txt is a plain text file at the root of a website (e.g. example.com/robots.txt) that tells search engine crawlers which pages they can and cannot access. It helps control crawl behavior, but it does not prevent pages from being indexed if Google finds them through external links.

Question 2

Does every website need a robots.txt?

Accepted Answer

Not strictly, but it is recommended. Without a robots.txt file, search engines will attempt to crawl everything they can find. Having one gives you control over what gets crawled and helps crawlers discover your sitemap.

Question 3

Can robots.txt block Google from indexing pages?

Accepted Answer

Not exactly. robots.txt blocks crawling, not indexing. If Google finds a URL through external links but cannot crawl it, it may still show the URL in search results without a content snippet. Use noindex to prevent indexing.

Question 4

Should I include my sitemap in robots.txt?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Adding a Sitemap directive in robots.txt is a simple best practice that helps search engines discover your XML sitemap automatically, without needing to submit it manually in Search Console.

Question 5

What does Disallow mean?

Accepted Answer

Disallow tells crawlers not to access the specified path. For example, Disallow: /admin/ tells crawlers to skip all URLs starting with /admin/. An empty Disallow line means nothing is blocked for that user-agent.

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