Create optimized robots.txt files to control search engine crawling and improve your website's SEO performance
Want to embed this robots.txt generator on your website? Use this code:
Basic robots.txt for a typical website:
Characteristics: Allows all bots, blocks sensitive areas, includes sitemap
Robots.txt optimized for e-commerce with crawl control:
Features: Crawl delay, allows product pages, blocks user areas
Optimized for content-heavy websites:
Features: Specific Googlebot rules, blocks search and admin areas
For staging/development environments:
Use Case: Prevents search engines from indexing development sites
Learn the fundamentals of robots.txt files, how they work, and why they're essential for SEO and website management.
Read Tutorial →Discover the most common robots.txt errors that can hurt your SEO and how to fix them.
Read Tutorial →Learn advanced patterns, wildcards, and specific bot targeting for optimal crawl control.
Read Tutorial →Understand how different search engine bots interpret and follow robots.txt directives.
Read Tutorial →Tools and techniques for testing your robots.txt file and monitoring crawl behavior.
Read Tutorial →How to use robots.txt for security without revealing sensitive information to malicious bots.
Read Tutorial →Compare our free robots.txt generator with other popular tools and services:
| Feature | Our Tool | Tool A | Tool B | Tool C |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free to Use | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ (Premium) | ✅ |
| Multiple User-Agent Rules | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Predefined Templates | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Crawl Delay Settings | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Syntax Validation | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Export Options | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Mobile Friendly | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Educational Content | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Real-time Preview | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
Support for multiple user-agent rules, crawl delays, and complex path patterns with wildcards.
Built-in best practices and recommendations to optimize your robots.txt for search engines.
Intuitive interface with predefined templates and real-time preview of your robots.txt file.
Not just a tool - includes comprehensive guides, examples, and tutorials to help you understand robots.txt.
A robots.txt file is a text file that tells search engine bots which pages or sections of your website should not be crawled or indexed. It's part of the Robots Exclusion Protocol (REP), a standard used by websites to communicate with web crawlers and other web robots.
Specifies which search engine bot the rules apply to. Use * for all bots or specific names like Googlebot.
Tells bots not to crawl specific paths or sections of your website. Can use wildcards (*) for pattern matching.
Explicitly allows crawling of paths that might be blocked by broader Disallow rules. Overrides Disallow for specific paths.
Specifies the number of seconds bots should wait between requests to avoid overloading your server.
When a search engine bot visits your website, it first checks for a robots.txt file in the root directory. The bot then follows the instructions in this file before crawling any other pages. The process works as follows:
Enhance your website's search engine performance with these trusted tools: