Key highlights
- Robots.txt is a powerful tool for managing search engine behavior on websites.
- Robots.txt Disallow all blocks all search engines from crawling your site.
- Incorrect use of robots.txt can harm SEO and slow reindexing after changes.
- For security or private content, use password protection instead of relying on Disallow directive.
- Regularly auditing robots.txt file ensures it’s optimized for search engine visibility.
Introduction
A well-known eCommerce brand once found itself in an SEO nightmare. Overnight, its pages vanished from Google search results, leading to a sudden drop in organic traffic and revenue.
After hours of frantic troubleshooting, the culprit was discovered—a misplaced robots.txt Disallow all. This one line had effectively blocked search engines from crawling across the entire site, making it invisible to potential customers.
The robots.txt Disallow all directive is a powerful tool. But when used incorrectly, it can sabotage your search rankings, slow down reindexing and cause significant SEO damage.
So, what exactly does Disallow all do? When should it be used or avoided? In this article, we’ll explore everything about robots.txt Disallow all.
What is a robots.txt file?
A robots.txt file is a plain text file located in your website’s root domain directory. It decides which search engine bots get in and which areas they’re allowed to explore or record. This file follows the robots exclusion protocol, also known as the Robots Exclusion Standard. It’s a set of guidelines that different search engines follow when crawling websites.
Without a well-configured robots.txt file, Google bots can roam freely, indexing everything. It may include pages you don’t want in search results, such as admin pages, duplicate content or test environments.
Note: Google enforces a 500 KiB size limit for robots.txt files. Any content exceeding the maximum file size is ignored.
You can create and change your robots.txt file using Yoast SEO plugin or your website’s server files. Google Search Console also offers useful insights for easily managing robots.txt file.
Also read: How to Exclude Google from Indexing Add to Cart WordPress Page using Yoast SEO
Examples of how robots.txt files work
Robots.txt has different rules depending on how much access you want to give search engine bots. Here are a few common examples:
Example 1: Allowing all bots to access the entire website
User-agent: *
Disallow:What it does:
- The ‘User-agent: *’ means all search engine bots (Googlebot, Bingbot, etc.) can access the site.
- The ‘empty Disallow’ field means no restrictions and bots can crawl everything.
When to use it: If you want full search engine visibility for your entire website.
Example 2: Disallowing all bots from accessing a specific directory
User-agent: *
Disallow: /private-directory/What it does: Blocks all search engine bots from accessing anything inside ‘/private-directory/’.
When to use it: If you want to hide sensitive areas like admin panels or confidential data.
Example 3: Allowing Googlebot while disallowing others from a directory
User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: /images/
User-agent: *
Disallow: /private-directory/What it does:
- Googlebot cannot access the /images/ directory.
- All other bots cannot access /private-directory/.
When to use it: If you want to control access for specific bots, such as letting Google crawl some parts of your site while blocking others.
Example 4: Specifying the location of your XML Sitemap
User-agent: *
Disallow:
Sitemap: https://www.[yourwebsitename].com/sitemap.xmlWhat it does:
- Allows full access to search engine bots.
- Tells search engines where to find the XML Sitemap, helping them index pages efficiently.
When to use it: If you want search engines to easily find and crawl your sitemap.
Also read: How to Create a WordPress sitemap
Difference between robots.txt vs. meta robots vs. X-Robots-Tag
While robots.txt, meta robots and X-robots control how search engines interact with your content, they serve different purposes.
- Robots.txt: Prevents crawling, but pages may still appear in search results if linked elsewhere.
- Meta robots tag: Directly influences indexing and crawling of individual pages.
- X-Robots-Tag: Controls indexing of non-HTML files like PDFs, images and videos.
| Feature | Robots.txt | Meta robots tags | X-Robots-Tag |
| Location | Root directory (/robots.txt) | <head> section of a webpage | HTTP header response |
| Controls | Entire sections of a site | Indexing and crawling of specific pages | Indexing of non-HTML files |
| Example | Disallow: /private/ | <meta name=”robots” content=”noindex”> | X-Robots-Tag: noindex |
| Impact on SEO | Stops bots from crawling, but does not prevent indexing if linked elsewhere | Prevents a page from being indexed and appearing in search results | Ensures non-HTML files are not indexed |
| Best use case | Block search engines from entire directories | Prevent specific pages from appearing in search results | Control indexing of PDFs, images and other files |
6 Common robots.txt syntax
Understanding robots.txt is easier when you know its basic rules. These simple rules help manage how search engine bots work with your website:
- User-agent: This rule tells which bot or crawler the following guidelines are for.
- Disallow: This rule tells bots not to visit specific files, folders or pages on your site that may include certain regular expressions.
- Allow: This rule lets bots crawl certain files, folders or pages.
- Sitemap: This rule directs search engines to your website’s XML sitemap location.
- Crawl-delay: This rule asks bots to crawl your site more slowly. But not all search engines follow this rule.
- Noindex: This rule requests bots not to index some pages or parts of your site. Yet, Google’s support for noindex rule in robots.txt is inconsistent.
1. User-agent directive
The ‘User-agent’ rule is important for your robots.txt file. It shows which bot or crawler the rules apply to. Each search engine has a unique name called a ‘user agent’. For example, Google’s web crawler calls itself ‘Googlebot’.
If you want to target Googlebot only, write:
User-agent: GooglebotYou can type different user agents separately, each with their own rules. You can also use the wildcard ‘*’ to make the rules apply to all user agents.
2. Disallow robots.txt directive
The ‘Disallow’ rule is very important for deciding which parts of your website should be hidden from search engines. This rule tells search engine bots not to look at certain files, folders or pages on your site.
Blocking a directory
For example, you can use the ‘Disallow’ rule to stop bots from entering the admin area of your website:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /admin/This will keep all URLs starting with ‘/admin/’ away from all search engine bots.
Using wildcards
User-agent: *
Disallow: /*.pdf$With the wildcard ‘*’, you can block all PDF files on your website. Remember to check your robots.txt file after making changes to make sure you don’t block any important parts of the site.
3. Allow directive
‘Disallow’ blocks access to certain areas of a website, whereas the ‘Allow’ directive can make exceptions in these blocked areas. It works together with ‘Disallow’ to let specific files or pages be accessed even when a whole directory is blocked.
Think about a directory that has images. If you want Google Images to see one special image in that directory, here’s how you can do it:
User-agent: Googlebot-Image
Allow: /images/featured-image.jpg
User-agent: *
Disallow: /images/In this case, you are first letting Googlebot-Image access ‘featured-image.jpg’. Then, block all other bots from seeing the ‘/images/’ directory.
4. Sitemap directive
The ‘Sitemap’ directive tells search engines where to find your XML sitemap. An XML sitemap is a file that shows all the key pages on your site. This makes it easier for search engines to crawl and index your content.
Adding your sitemap to your robots.txt file is easy:
Sitemap: https://www.[yourwebsitename].com/sitemap.xmlMake sure to change ‘https://www. [yourwebsitename].com/sitemap.xml’ to your real sitemap URL. You can submit your sitemap using Google Search Console. But putting it in your robots.txt file ensures that all search engines can find it.
5. Crawl-delay directive
The ‘Crawl-delay’ directive controls how fast search engines crawl your website. Its main goal is to keep your web server from getting too busy when many bots try to access pages at the same time.
The ‘Crawl-delay’ time is measured in seconds. For example, this code tells Bingbot to wait 10 seconds before raising another request:
User-agent: Bingbot
Crawl-delay: 10Be careful when you set crawl delays. Too long of a delay can hurt your website’s indexing and ranking. This is especially true if your site has a lot of pages and is updated regularly.
Note: Google’s crawler, Googlebot, doesn’t follow this directive. But you can adjust the crawl rate through Google Search Console to avoid server overload.
Also read: How to Verify Website Ownership on Google Search Console
6. Noindex directive
The ‘noindex’ command stops search engines from storing specific pages from your website. But now, Google doesn’t officially support this rule.
Some tests show that ‘noindex’ in robots.txt can still work. But it isn’t a good idea to depend only on this method. Instead, you can use meta robots tags or the X-Robots-Tag HTTP header, for better control over indexing.
Why is robots.txt important for SEO?
A well-configured robots.txt file is a strong tool for SEO. This file affects how Google and other search engines find, browse and record your website’s content. In turn, it affects how well your site is seen and ranked.
1. Optimize crawl budget
Crawl budget is the number of pages that Googlebot will index on your website in a certain time. If you optimize your crawl budget well, Google will focus on your important content.
You can use robots.txt to block Google from visiting unnecessary pages and spend more time on your valuable content.
2. Block duplicate and non-public pages
Duplicate content is a common problem that can hurt your SEO. It confuses search engines and weakens your website’s authority.
Using robots.txt, you can block access to duplicate pages, like PDF versions or older content. This way, search engines can focus on the original and most important versions of your pages.
Also read: What is Duplicate Content: How to Spot and Prevent It
3. Hide resources
Hiding CSS or JavaScript files from search engines may sound like a good idea for managing your website’s crawl budget. But it’s not.
Search engines use these files to properly display your pages and understand how your website works. If you block these files, search engines may struggle to evaluate your website’s user experience. This hurts your search rankings.
How to use robots.txt disallow all for search engines
You can check your site’s robots.txt file by simply adding ‘robots.txt’ at the end of a URL. For example, https://www.bluehost.com/robots.txt. Let’s check how you can configure the robots.txt file using Bluehost File Manager:
1. Access the File Manager
- Log in to your Bluehost account manager.
- Navigate to the ‘Hosting’ tab in the left-hand menu.
- Click on ‘File Manager’ under the ‘Quick Links’ section.
2. Locate the robots.txt file
- In the ‘File Manager’, open the ‘public_html’ directory, which contains your website’s files.
- Look for the ‘robots.txt’ filename in this directory.
3. Create the robots.txt file (if it doesn’t exist)
If the robots.txt file is not present, you can create it. Here’s how:
- Click on the ‘+ File’ button at the top-left corner.
- Name the new file ‘robots.txt’. Ensure it is placed in the ‘/public_html’ directory.
4. Edit the robots.txt file
- Right-click on the ‘robots.txt’ file and select ‘Edit’.
- A text editor will open, allowing you to add or modify directives.
5. Configure robots.txt to disallow search engines
To control how search engines interact with your site, you can add specific directives to the robots.txt file. Here are some common configurations:
- ‘Disallow all’ Search Engines from accessing the entire site: To prevent all search engine bots from crawling any part of your site, add the following lines:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /This tells all user agents (denoted by the asterisk *) not to access any pages on your site.
- Disallow specific search engines from a specific folder: If you want to prevent a particular search engine’s bot from crawling a specific directory, specify the bot’s user-agent and the directory:
User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: /example-subfolder/This example blocks Google’s bot from accessing the /example-subfolder/ directory.
- ‘Disallow all’ bots from specific directories: To block all bots from certain directories, list them as follows:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /tmp/
Disallow: /junk/This configuration prevents all user agents from accessing the /cgi-bin/, /tmp/ and /junk/ directories.
Important considerations before using robots.txt Disallow all
It is important how and when you use ‘Disallow all’ in your robots.txt file, as it can seriously affect your site’s SEO. Here are a few things to keep in mind before using robots.txt Disallow all.
1. Purpose of robots.txt file
Before you change your robots.txt file, you need to know what it is for. The robots.txt file is not meant to be a safety tool or to hide your website from any threat. If you have sensitive content, it’s better to use stronger methods like password protection instead of just using robots.txt.
2. Impact on index presence
Using robots.txt Disallow all can seriously affect how your website shows up in search engines. When you stop search engine bots from visiting your site, they will eventually remove your pages from their index. As a result, your traffic from Google Search will decline sharply.
3. Impact on link equity
Link equity (or link juice) is very important for ranking well in SEO. When trustworthy websites link to your pages, they share some of their authority. But if you use robots.txt Disallow all to block search engine bots, you also stop the flow of link equity.
4. Risk of public accessibility
Robots.txt files are publicly accessible. Anyone can see which part of your website is restricted from search engines. For better security, use server-side authentication, firewalls, IP blocking methods or place sensitive content in secured directories.
5. Avoid syntax errors
A small syntax mistake in your robots.txt file can lead to unintended crawling. This may prevent search engines from accessing important pages or fail to block unwanted areas.
To prevent this, always double-check your syntax and structure before implementing changes. You can also use an online syntax checker or testing tools to identify any mistakes.
6. Test robots.txt file
Regular testing helps to confirm that you’re not inadvertently blocking essential content or leaving important sections of your site unprotected. It also ensures that your robots.txt file remains an effective part of your website’s SEO strategy.
Also read: How to Optimize Content for SEO on WordPress
Final thoughts
Mastering robots.txt is a key skill for website owners and SEOs. When you understand how it works, you can help search engines find your important content. This can lead to better visibility, higher search rankings and more organic traffic.
But use robots.txt Disallow all very carefully. It can have major effects on your SEO in the long run. By following best practices, checking your robots.txt file often and keeping up with updates from search engines, you can make the most of robots.txt. This will help optimize your website for success.
FAQs
“Disallow all” in robots.txt blocks all search engine bots from crawling any part of your site.
Robots.txt helps web crawlers understand which pages to index. This affects your visibility on Google Search and your rankings.
Using robots.txt Disallow all can remove your pages from search results, causing traffic loss and SEO damage that takes time to recover from.
Yes, using ‘Disallow all’ can hurt your SEO. It can make your site hard to find on Google and affect your visibility in Google Search Console.
To reverse the ‘Disallow all’ directive:
1. Remove ‘Disallow: /’ from the robots.txt file.
2. Submit the updated robots.txt file in Google Search Console.
3. Resubmit the XML sitemap to help search engines rediscover pages faster.
4. Monitor Google Search Console for crawl errors.
No, robots.txt Disallow all is not a good way to keep private content safe. It is better to use strong security options, like passwords, for sensitive information.
Check and update your robots.txt file after you redesign your website, move content or make any big changes to your site’s layout. Make sure it matches your current SEO strategy and that your XML sitemap is linked correctly.
