Robots.txt Generator

What is Robots.txt Generator?

Robots.txt Generator helps you quickly create a valid robots.txt file that controls how search engine crawlers (bots) access your website. With simple inputs for user-agents, Disallow/Allow paths, optional Crawl-delay, Sitemap, and Host directives, it outputs a ready-to-use file you can place at the root of your site.

What is a Robots.txt file?

robots.txt is a plain-text file that lives at the root of a domain (e.g., https://example.com/robots.txt). It tells compliant web crawlers which areas of your site they may or shouldn’t access. While it does not enforce security, it provides guidelines that well-behaving bots respect. It’s primarily used to manage crawl activity, protect server resources, and prevent indexation of low-value or duplicate pages.

Characteristics of a robots.txt file

• Plain text: No HTML, JSON, or authentication—just text directives.
• Location: Must be served at the site root (/robots.txt).
• User-agent scoped: Rules apply per bot; * targets all crawlers.
• Case sensitivity: Paths are case-sensitive on most servers; be precise.
• Non-security: It hides paths from polite bots but does not protect content.
• Multiple sitemaps: You can list more than one Sitemap directive.

Robots.txt syntax

Common directives include:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /private
Disallow: /admin
Allow: /admin/assets
Crawl-delay: 10
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml
Host: example.com

• User-agent – the crawler this rule targets (e.g., *, Googlebot).
• Disallow – directories or paths that should not be crawled.
• Allow – exceptions to a broader Disallow (useful for subpaths).
• Crawl-delay – optional delay between requests (not honored by all bots).
• Sitemap – points crawlers to your XML sitemap(s).
• Host – preferred domain (used by some crawlers).

SEO and robots.txt

• Block low-value pages: Admin, login, filters, faceted search, or staging content.
• Don’t block essential assets: Avoid disallowing /css or /js folders—Google needs them to render pages.
• Use meta robots for index control: To prevent indexing of a page, prefer <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> on the page rather than only disallowing it in robots.txt.
• Sitemaps help discovery: Listing your sitemap accelerates URL discovery and helps maintain fresh indexes.

Crawl budget and robots.txt

For large websites, crawl budget matters. Disallowing non-critical sections reduces wasted crawler hits so important URLs are discovered and refreshed more efficiently. Keep your rules tight, avoid over-blocking, and ensure critical pages and assets remain accessible to bots.

How to Use Robots.txt Generator Online?

1. Enter your Website URL; the tool auto-suggests Host and Sitemap.
2. Select whether rules apply to all bots (*) or specify user-agents (e.g., Googlebot).
3. Add Disallow and optional Allow paths—one per line.
4. Optionally set Crawl-delay and include your Sitemap URL.
5. Click Create Robots.txt. The Generated Robots.txt File section appears.
6. Use Export File to download, Copy Text to copy, or Start New to reset.