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Typical Default vs Custom Robots
When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), one of the most important files on your website is the robots.txt file. This file provides instructions to search engine crawlers, telling them which pages to crawl and which to ignore. But what's the difference between a typical default robots.txt file and a custom one?
Typical Default Robots.txt File
A typical default robots.txt file is actually empty or doesn't exist. This means that all search engine crawlers are allowed to crawl and index all pages on your website. This is the most permissive setting, and it's the default behavior for most websites.
In other words, if you don't have a robots.txt file, search engine crawlers will assume that they can crawl and index all pages on your site. This is usually the desired behavior for most websites, as it allows search engines to discover and index all your content.
Custom Robots.txt File
A custom robots.txt file, on the other hand, provides specific instructions to search engine crawlers. This file can be used to:
- Allow or disallow specific crawlers to crawl your site
- Specify which pages or directories to crawl or ignore
- Provide a sitemap location to help search engines discover your site's pages
For example, a custom robots.txt file might look like this:
- User-agent: Mediapartners-Google (allows Mediapartners-Google to crawl your site)
- Disallow: /search (tells all crawlers to ignore URLs that start with /search)
- Allow: / (allows all crawlers to crawl all other URLs on your site)
- Sitemap: https://yourwebsitenamehere.blogspot.com/sitemap.xml (specifies the location of your site's sitemap)
Read also: Improve AdSense In-page Ads: Cleaner Look and Better Spacing with CSS
Key Differences of default robots and custom robots
So, what's the key difference between a typical default robots.txt file and a custom one? The main difference is that a custom robots.txt file provides more specific instructions to search engine crawlers, allowing you to control which pages are crawled and indexed.
A custom robots.txt file can be useful if you want to:
- Block certain pages or directories from being crawled
- Allow specific crawlers to crawl your site
- Provide a sitemap location to help search engines discover your site's pages
On the other hand, a typical default robots.txt file (or no file at all) is usually sufficient for most websites, as it allows all search engine crawlers to crawl and index all pages on your site.
Conclusion
While a typical default file allows all search engine crawlers to crawl and index all pages on your site, a custom file provides more specific instructions to control which pages are crawled and indexed, giving you the choice to optimize your website's crawlability and indexing.
Source: AI