Google has released several updates to both the robots.txt documentation and the structured data documentation last Friday. Here is a list of those changes from Google's site.
- Simplified the introduction page to make it clearer what is robots.txt and what is its intended use.
- Expanded the instructions about creating and updating robots.txt files.
- Removed redundant sections from our documentation about how Google handles robots.txt.
- Simplified sentences across all robots.txt documentation in English. This helps with localization.
- Removed redundant documentation about how to build, test, and release structured data. Each feature has guidance about this, embedded directly into each guide (for example, the Video structured data guide.
- Improved the troubleshooting sections across all structured data feature guides (for example, the Product structure data guide.
- Added more beginner-friendly information about how to get started with structured data.
Here is some clarity on why Google made the changes from Lizzi Harvey and Gary Illyes of Google:
@methode oh come on. there were only 148 comments, and a 4 page doc.
— Lizzi Harvey (@LizziHarvey) June 18, 2021
here are the other links if you wanna take a look!https://t.co/kREZTScTbt https://t.co/cDSV8PuYXk pic.twitter.com/hDggaUCz71
Insane, people sent in 148 comments that the both of them used to revise the robots.txt documents. Lizzi added that they also ended up "fixing issues across 20+ structured data docs."
Forum discussion at Twitter.
