Google Clarified Support For Robots.txt Fields With Tiny Change

Oct 8, 2024 - 7:11 am 1 by

Google Robot Spider

Google added eight or so words between brackets to clarify that fields that aren't explicitly listed in the robots.txt documentation aren't supported. Why did they do this? Google said because sometimes Google gets questions about it.

The words Google added were added to the syntax section of the robots.txt documentation and it reads:

(other fields such as crawl-delay aren't supported)

Here is the before and after, where the addition is highlighted in blue:

Doc Change Markup

Here is what it looks like now:

Syntax Google Robots Txt Clarify

As Jaskaran Singh, Silver Product Expert at Google in Webmaster/Search Console Community, wrote on LinkedIn, "If you're using unsupported fields, like crawl-delay, Google will ignore them. Be sure to follow these supported directives to ensure your site is crawled as intended." He added as "Pro Tip: Always use comments (#) for better readability, and ensure paths start with / to avoid errors."

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: July 11, 2025

Jul 11, 2025 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Helpful Content Recoveries With Core Update, AI Mode Expands, Hidden Ad Terms & Fewer Ad Clicks

Jul 11, 2025 - 8:01 am
Google Maps

Google Local & Business Profiles Drops June 25th - Reporting Glitch?

Jul 11, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google

Google Tests Zoom Effect In On Images Within Search Results

Jul 11, 2025 - 7:41 am
Bing Search

Bing Search Image Box Tests Explore Image & Visual Search Buttons

Jul 11, 2025 - 7:31 am
Bing Search

Microsoft Bing Tests Delivery Truck Icon In Search Ads

Jul 11, 2025 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: Google Merchant Center Adds Video Generation & Amazon MCF Integration