TXT Robots What is it and what is it for?
If you are looking for more knowledge about web positioning, it is possible that along the way you have come across robots.txt files. And, perhaps at this moment you are wondering what it is, what it is for, and above all if it is useful and if you really need it.
Nowadays, people often use Google to search for some kind of information. It is one of the most famous search engines in the world, which offers us all kinds of information for our daily lives. It is one of the easiest to use and manage for users.
However, most search engines need information, they are snoopy by nature and want to know absolutely everything about the user and the web pages they consult. In short, they are impatient and greedy for information. That is where the importance of knowing the use, management and operation of robots.txt comes from. Therefore, we show you everything you need to know about robots.txt files and their use.
What is Robots.txt
The .txt file is nothing more than a text file with .txt extensionwhich is created and uploaded to the website. It is used to prevent certain search engine robots from crawling any content that we do not want them to index or display any user information in their results.
Well, the robots.txt, is a public file used to show or indicate those crawlers or spiders which parts should not enter to crawl and index the web page. In it, you can specify quickly and easily, what are the directories, subdirectories, URLs or files on our website that should not be crawled or indexed by any of the search engines.
In addition, it is intended to help users' navigation in terms of some of the search algorithms on a website. Guiding the crawlers which pages should be indexed in the search engines. And, controlling the pages that the search engine robot should not access.
How robots.txt works
Actually the operation of a robots.txt is less complex than it seems to be. The first thing we need to know is what the robots.txt file is for, how it contributes to daily browsing and which elements of our website it is capable of indexing or not.
The main function of the robots.txt file is to manage all traffic from crawlers to your website. And sometimes so that Google does not crawl certain pages that the user does not want to show, depending on the type of file.
In addition, control access to the user's image files by placing them in the search results of pages. Thus helping to control access to certain important information about people.
In reality, the functioning of a file.txt is less complex than it seems to be. The first thing we need to know is what the robots.txt file is for, how it contributes to daily browsing and which elements of our website it is capable of indexing or not.
The main function of the robots.txt file is to manage all traffic from crawlers to your website. And sometimes so that Google does not crawl certain pages that the user does not want to show, depending on the type of file.
In addition, control access to the user's image files by placing them in the search results of pages. Thus helping to control access to certain important information about people.
Is it necessary to use robots.txt?
While the use of the .txt file is not mandatory. Given its multiple benefits for users, it makes it a useful tool for people who frequently use web browsers. Whether it is for daily work purposes or for particular uses. The .txt file allows them to decide whether or not they want to restrict some of the information parts of the website in the face of robots or search engines.
Here are some of the most interesting benefits of creating a robots.txt file:
- Confine or hide part of the visited web pages from search engines.
- Restrict access to duplicate content.
- Restrict the path to code files.
There are undoubtedly many advantages to creating the file. However, the importance of properly configuring robots txt lies in the importance of guiding the robots towards the best navigation, crawling of the different pages.
robots.txt commands
Now, once it is determined whether it is useful or not the use of txt file. And, above all, how beneficial it can be for work projects or daily use, we mention the main commands that can be implemented:
User-agent:
Indicates the rules to which the bots will apply. Putting user-agent indicates that the rules apply to all bots.
Disallow
Here you restrict access to specific directories, subdirectories or pages.
Allow
This refers to the opposite of the previous command, because it serves to give access to our website. It indicates to the robots that a part of the pages that were under the disallow command can be crawled.
Sitemap
This command refers to or indicates the path of our sitemap.
Robots.txt scopes?
However, the file robots.txt to direct the search engine's access to the page. However, it is important to keep in mind that robots.txt has certain limitations and knowing them is essential, specifically to identify the need when using other devices so that your URLs are not easily found in searches.
The instructions in the .txt file are guidelines only. Although their use is an industry standard, search engines are not obliged to follow all requests. This means that while, for example, there are txt files for GoogleIf you follow the instructions in the robots.txt file, other search engines may not do the same.
Therefore, care should be taken when setting rules for specific robots, ensuring that the instructions are sufficiently clear for each robot, whether it is a noidex txt robot or not, robots txt disallow php or robots txt disallow.
It is therefore important that, in addition to the file.txtIn addition to this, use other methods to hide your pages from Google, such as password-protected access or the use of meta noindex tags in your html code.