SEO Technical: robots.txt
Guides configuration and auditing of robots.txt for search engine and AI crawler control.
When invoking: On first use, if helpful, open with 1–2 sentences on what this skill covers and why it matters, then provide the main output. On subsequent use or when the user asks to skip, go directly to the main output.
Scope (Technical SEO)
- Robots.txt: Review Disallow/Allow; avoid blocking important pages
- Crawler access: Ensure crawlers (including AI crawlers) can access key pages
- Indexing: Misconfigured robots.txt can block indexing; verify no accidental blocks
Initial Assessment
Check for product marketing context first: If .claude/product-marketing-context.md or .cursor/product-marketing-context.md exists, read it for site URL and indexing goals.
Identify:
- Site URL: Base domain (e.g.,
https://example.com) - Indexing scope: Full site, partial, or specific paths to exclude
- AI crawler strategy: Allow search/indexing vs. block training data crawlers
Best Practices
Purpose and Limitations
| Point | Note |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Controls crawler access; does NOT prevent indexing (disallowed URLs may still appear in search without snippet) |
| No-index | Use noindex meta or auth for sensitive content; robots.txt is publicly readable |
| Indexed vs non-indexed | Not all content should be indexed. robots.txt and noindex complement each other: robots for path-level crawl control, noindex for page-level indexing. See seo-technical-indexing |
| Advisory | Rules are advisory; malicious crawlers may ignore |
Location and Format
| Item | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Path | Site root: https://example.com/robots.txt |
| Encoding | UTF-8 plain text |
| Standard | RFC 9309 (Robots Exclusion Protocol) |
Core Directives
| Directive | Purpose | Example |
|---|---|---|
User-agent: | Target crawler | User-agent: Googlebot, User-agent: * |
Disallow: | Block path prefix | Disallow: /admin/ |
Allow: | Allow path (can override Disallow) | Allow: /public/ |
Sitemap: | Declare sitemap absolute URL | Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml |
Clean-param: | Strip query params (Yandex) | See below |
Critical: Do Not Block Rendering Resources
- Do not block CSS, JS, images; Google needs them to render pages
- Only block paths that don't need crawling: admin, API, temp files
AI Crawler Strategy
| User-agent | Purpose | Typical |
|---|---|---|
| OAI-SearchBot | ChatGPT search | Allow |
| GPTBot | OpenAI training | Disallow |
| Claude-SearchBot | Claude search | Allow |
| ClaudeBot | Anthropic training | Disallow |
| PerplexityBot | Perplexity search | Allow |
| Google-Extended | Gemini training | Disallow |
| CCBot | Common Crawl | Disallow |
Clean-param (Yandex)
Clean-param: utm_source&utm_medium&utm_campaign&utm_term&utm_content&ref&fbclid&gclidOutput Format
- Current state (if auditing)
- Recommended robots.txt (full file)
- Compliance checklist
- References: Google robots.txt
Related Skills
- seo-technical-sitemap: Sitemap URL to reference in robots.txt
- seo-technical-crawlability: Broader crawl and structure guidance