Google: Keep Your Robots.txt Simple

Mar 29, 2013 - 8:40 am 13 by

GooglebotA Google Webmaster Help thread has Google's John Mueller responding to some complex robots.txt questions.

In that, he strongly recommends that when you do set up a robots.txt file, make sure you keep it very simple. John said:

When possible, I'd really recommend keeping the robots.txt file as simple as possible, so that you don't have trouble with maintenance and that it's really only disallowing resources that are problematic when crawled (or when its content is indexed).

Heck, John even has recommended you remove the robots.txt file completely if it is not needed but always make sure to keep it under 500KB if you do have to go more complex.

To see the context this is in, see the Google Webmaster Help thread.

Personally, I am all for not using robots.txt files when possible.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

 

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: June 20, 2025

Jun 20, 2025 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Search Volatility, AI Mode in Search Console, Audio Overviews and ChatGPT Search Quality

Jun 20, 2025 - 8:01 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google: Larger & Longer Issues Can Take Longer To Reverse In Google Search

Jun 20, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Troubleshooting On Blocking Content From AI Mode & AI Overviews

Jun 20, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google

Google Video Search Tests Speaker Icon With Language Label

Jun 20, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google

Google Investigating Search Clicks Leading To Translated Results

Jun 20, 2025 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: Google Webmaster Academy Adds More Languages