Skip to main content

Customise The "Robots.Txt" File, For Your Blog

The file "Robots.Txt", used to manage search engine access to your blog, is found in the blog root folder.

You can't edit "Robot.Txt" directly - but you can upload a new file. Long ago, you would use Webmaster Tools - which is now called Search Console.

Now, we can update "robots.txt" directly, using the Blogger dashboard "Custom robots.txt" wizard, in Settings - "Search preferences".

Here's the link to the "Robots.Txt" file, for this blog.
http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/robots.txt

To view / copy the current contents, just click on the link. You can do the same with the file, for your blog.

If I want to change the file for this blog, I start with the current file. Excepting one small detail (my blog is published to "blogging.nitecruzr.net", yours is published to your chosen URL), your file will be identical - if you have not tweaked it.

User-agent: Mediapartners-Google Disallow: User-agent: * Disallow: /search Allow: / Sitemap: http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/sitemap.xml

Let's look at a simple example - adding a sitemap.

Some people would like to index the static pages, in their blog. That's a simple enough task - just add the sitemap, for static pages, to your file.

"sitemap-pages.xml", like "sitemap.xml", is automatically generated for each blog.

User-agent: Mediapartners-Google Disallow: User-agent: * Disallow: /search Allow: / Sitemap: http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/sitemap.xml Sitemap: http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/sitemap-pages.xml


Start from Settings - Search preferences.


Start with an empty ("[Disabled]") "Custom robots.txt".



Click on "Edit".



Click on "Yes".



Paste in your edited file content. Note that you will overlay the current contents with what you paste - so paste the entire file, as you wish to have.




Click on "Save changes".


Select "Yes" for "Enable custom robots.txt content?", if necessary.




Right now, though, I don't want to change my file. So, I'll leave my custom file in the wizard, and leave "No" selected.



And the custom file is
"[Disabled]", again.



Even if disabled, I can get it back again, easily enough. Just click on "Yes", and there it is, again. For right now, though, I'll leave it "[Disabled]".


Just be aware of the dangers of editing, without knowing what effect a given entry has, on search engine activity. Remember that you can get the default file back, with a couple mouse clicks.

Comments

BW Christopher said…
Thank-you! Brilliant instructions, even I understand! Much appreciated.

Bryan
Unknown said…
Hello Sir,

I tried to do this in my blog but it is showing only 151 submitted link and 126 indexed only knowing that i have 304 posts published.

http://chem2tech-en.blogspot.com

can you please check it, and help me to adjust this error.

Regards

Tamer
LexBlogger said…
I followed your excellent guidance, and now have my Robots.txt file customized with the sitemap-pages.xml line added. So far so good.

But a Custom Search does not find any words that are indexed on the four pages {I assume they are static) that I have. So obviously I have missed a step, or a concept somewhere. So I would appreciate a little guidance.

Harry

Popular posts from this blog

Adding A Link To Your Blog Post

Occasionally, you see a very odd, cryptic complaint I just added a link in my blog, but the link vanished! No, it wasn't your imagination.

What's The URL Of My Blog?

We see the plea for help, periodically I need the URL of my blog, so I can give it to my friends. Help! Who's buried in Grant's Tomb, after all? No Chuck, be polite. OK, OK. The title of this blog is "The Real Blogger Status", and the title of this post is "What's The URL Of My Blog?".

Embedded Comments And Main Page View

The option to display comments, embedded below the post, was made a blog option relatively recently. This was a long requested feature - and many bloggers added it to their blogs, as soon as the option was presented to us. Some blog owners like this feature so much, that they request it to be visible when the blog is opened, in main page view. I would like all comments, and the comment form, to be shown underneath the relevant post, automatically, for everyone to read without clicking on the number of comments link. And this is not how embedded comments work.