Google Will Ignore Robots.txt Rules If It Serves A 4xx Status Code

Jan 17, 2023 - 7:41 am 1 by

Lizzi Sassman Googlebot

Here is another PSA from Gary Illyes of Google. In short, if you serve a 4xx status code with your robots.txt file, then Google will ignore the rules you have specified in that file.

Why? Well, 4xx status codes means the document is not available, so Google won't check it because the server says it is not available. Gary said this because he received a complaint or two about Google not respecting the robots.txt rules.

Gary wrote on LinkedIn, "PSA from my inbox: if you serve your robotstxt with a 403 HTTP status code, all rules in the file will be ignored by Googlebot. Client errors (4xx, except 429) mean unavailable robotstxt, as in, a 404 and a 403 are equivalent in this case."

In short, make sure your robots.txt file serves a 200 status code and Google can access it.

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: June 30, 2025

Jun 30, 2025 - 10:00 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Supports Fewer Structured Data, Not More Like Promised

Jun 30, 2025 - 7:51 am
Bing Ads

Microsoft Removed Over One Billion Ads & 475,000 Advertiser Accounts

Jun 30, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google

Google Tests AI Mode In Chrome Search Bar (Desktop & Android)

Jun 30, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google

PSA: Fan Out Queries Are Not In Google Search Console

Jun 30, 2025 - 7:21 am
Google Ads

New Google Ads Broad Match Experiments Testing

Jun 30, 2025 - 7:11 am
Previous Story: Google Search Perspectives & Opinions