To write a custom robots.txt file that is SEO-friendly, you need to consider the following guidelines:
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Begin with the user-agent directive: Specify the user-agent at the beginning of the file to identify which search engine robots you are addressing. For example:
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Allow or disallow crawling: Use the "Disallow" directive to specify which directories or files you want to disallow search engines from crawling. Use the "Allow" directive to grant access to specific directories or files that would otherwise be disallowed. For example:
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Handle specific bots or search engines: If you want to provide specific instructions to certain search engines, you can use their user-agent names in the robots.txt file. For example, to target Googlebot, you can use:
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Use wildcards and pattern matching: You can use wildcard characters such as "*" and "$" to match patterns in URLs. For example:
The above rule disallows any URLs ending with ".pdf" from being crawled.
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Specify sitemap location: Including a sitemap reference in the robots.txt file can help search engines discover and crawl your website more efficiently. For example:
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Place important directives at the top: Search engines typically read the robots.txt file from top to bottom, so it's advisable to place the most critical directives at the beginning to ensure they are prioritized.
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Test and validate: After creating your robots.txt file, it's essential to test it using tools provided by search engines or online validators to ensure it is correctly formatted and serves the intended purpose.
Remember that while the robots.txt file can provide instructions to search engines, it does not guarantee that all search engines will follow them. Well-behaved search engines usually adhere to the directives, but malicious bots or poorly programmed crawlers may ignore them.
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