What is the Robots.txt Generator?
The Robots.txt Generator writes a valid `robots.txt` file for your website — the small text file at your domain root that tells crawlers what they may and may not access. Choose which user-agents to allow, which paths to disallow, whether to reference your XML sitemap, and the generator produces the exact file contents to upload.
A robots.txt file is deceptively powerful. One wrong character in a `Disallow` rule can hide your entire site from Google — which is why generating the file with a tool (instead of hand-typing it) and testing it before deploying is the professional workflow.
How to use it
1. Choose the default rule set for all user-agents (`User-agent: *`): the paths you want hidden — commonly `/admin/`, private API routes, staging folders, and search-result pages.
2. Add crawler-specific rules if needed — for example, a stricter `Crawl-delay` for aggressive bots.
3. Add your sitemap URL — the `Sitemap:` line helps crawlers find all your pages faster and is recommended for nearly every site.
4. Generate, then read the output carefully line by line.
5. Upload the file to your document root so it resolves at `https://yourdomain.com/robots.txt`.
6. Validate the live file with the Robots.txt Tester in Google Search Console.
What belongs in a robots.txt
- **Disallow paths that waste crawl budget:** admin areas, cart/checkout steps, internal search results, duplicate parameter URLs.
- **The Sitemap directive:** one line, absolute URL.
- **Nothing you want indexed.** Blocking a page in robots.txt does not remove it from results — it only prevents crawling. Use `noindex` meta tags for de-indexing.
FAQ
Does robots.txt remove a page from Google?
No. It prevents crawling, not indexing. A blocked page can still appear in results if other sites link to it. To de-index, use a `noindex` tag on the page itself.
What happens if the file has a syntax error?
Crawlers skip the invalid line — or worse, over-block if a rule is too broad. Always test in Search Console before going live.
Should I block AI crawlers like GPTBot?
That's a business decision. Blocking GPTBot, ClaudeBot, or PerplexityBot prevents your content from being used to train or answer AI queries; allowing it is how sites get cited in AI search. Decide per crawler and state it explicitly in the file.
Do I need robots.txt at all?
No — an absent file means "allow everything." But adding one with a Sitemap reference is a small, worthwhile improvement for almost every site.
