How to access the robots.txt file

What is a robots.txt file?

The robots.txt file serves as a guide for web robots, indicating which web pages are suitable for indexing and which should be excluded. This file is essential for search engine optimization as it directs robots on how to interact with a website's content.

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How PublishFi handles robots.txt

PublishFi generates a robots.txt file automatically for your website. This ensures that search engines can properly crawl and index your content without you having to manually create or configure this technical file.

Viewing your robots.txt file

To view your website's robots.txt file, simply add /robots.txt to the end of your domain in the URL, such as:

mydomain.com/robots.txt

This allows search engine crawlers to navigate and index the relevant content on your website efficiently.

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Understanding your robots.txt file

A standard robots.txt file might look something like this:

User-agent: *
Allow: /
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /private/
Sitemap: https://mydomain.com/sitemap.xml

Here's what each line means:

• **User-agent: *** - These instructions apply to all web crawlers
• Allow: / - Permits crawling of all pages by default
• Disallow: /admin/ - Prevents crawling of any pages in the /admin/ directory
• Disallow: /private/ - Prevents crawling of any pages in the /private/ directory
• Sitemap: https://mydomain.com/sitemap.xml - Tells crawlers where to find your sitemap

Default robots.txt configuration

By default, PublishFi configures your robots.txt file to allow crawling of all public content while protecting any sensitive areas of your site. This configuration is optimized for most websites and typically doesn't require any changes.

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When to modify your robots.txt

In most cases, you won't need to modify your robots.txt file. However, there are situations where customization might be beneficial:

• When you have content you don't want indexed (e.g., duplicate content)
• If you're experiencing crawler rate limiting issues
• When you have sections of your site still under development

If you need to customize your robots.txt file, please contact our support team for assistance.

Best practices for robots.txt

• Regularly check your robots.txt file to ensure it's working as intended
• Use Google Search Console to test your robots.txt file
• Keep your sitemap reference updated in your robots.txt file
• Don't use robots.txt to hide sensitive information (use password protection instead)

Next steps

Now that you understand how to access your robots.txt file, you might want to learn about how to access your sitemap.xml file or explore our SEO strategy guide for creators.