Your WordPress site already has a robots.txt file and it’s making decisions about what search engine crawlers can access, whether you’ve ever touched it or not.
Most of those decisions are harmless. But a single poorly chosen rule can also keep crawlers away from URLs you actually want them to discover.
In this guide, we’ll show you what your robots.txt file is doing right now how to edit it without touching code.
Here is everything we will cover in this guide:
What Is a Robots.txt File?
Robots.txt is a plain text file that tells search engine bots which parts of your site they can crawl.
The file lives in the root directory (the main folder) of your website. The basic format looks like this:
User-agent: [user-agent name]
Disallow: [URL string not to be crawled]
User-agent: [user-agent name]
Allow: [URL string to be crawled]
Sitemap: [URL of your XML Sitemap]
You can add as many rules and sitemaps as you need. If you do not disallow a URL, bots assume they can crawl it.
Your site works fine without a robots.txt file when you first start a blog. However, as your content grows, this file becomes more useful.
Search engines give each website a crawl budget, which is the number of pages they will crawl in a given timeframe. By blocking unimportant pages, you help bots spend that budget on the content you want in search results.
This matters most for large sites with thousands of pages.
Keep in mind that robots.txt helps you control crawling, not indexing.
- Crawling is when search engine bots (like Googlebot) visit your website to discover its content.
- Indexing is when they add that content to their massive search database so it can appear in search results.
Think of it like a librarian reading a new book (crawling) and then adding it to the library’s catalog (indexing).
In other words, robots.txt is also not a good way to hide content because a disallowed page can still appear in search results if other websites link to it. To reliably keep a page out of Google, use a ‘noindex’ meta tag instead. This tells search engines not to list the page at all.
Robots.txt Examples and Best Practices
For most WordPress sites, you can keep your robots.txt file fairly simple. Here is the basic setup we recommend:
User-Agent: *
Allow: /wp-content/uploads/
Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /readme.html
Disallow: /refer/
Disallow: /?s=
Sitemap: https://www.example.com/post-sitemap.xml
Sitemap: https://www.example.com/page-sitemap.xml
Here is what each rule does:
Allow: /wp-content/uploads/lets search engines crawl your images and other files uploaded to your WordPress media library.Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.phpkeeps WordPress’s AJAX handler accessible. Themes and plugins may use this file to load or update content without refreshing the page.Disallow: /wp-admin/prevents crawlers from accessing your WordPress admin area, which doesn’t contain content you want appearing in search results.Disallow: /readme.htmlprevents crawlers from accessing WordPress’s defaultreadme.htmlfile. This file isn’t useful to search engines, so there is little reason for them to crawl it.Disallow: /refer/prevents crawlers from following affiliate or other redirect URLs that use the/refer/prefix. If your site uses a different prefix for these links, replace/refer/with your own.Disallow: /?s=prevents crawlers from requesting WordPress’s internal search URLs. These pages generally aren’t useful landing pages for search engines and can create many unnecessary URLs to crawl.Sitemaptells search engines where to find your XML sitemaps. This makes it easier for them to discover the URLs you want them to crawl.
These are the same core types of rules we use on WPBeginner. You can see our live file at wpbeginner.com/robots.txt. Our production file contains additional rules for a much larger site, but the basic principles are same.
Keep in mind that using the* wildcard applies to all crawlers.
For example, this rule blocks Googlebot from crawling the /private/ folder:
User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: /private/
Common user agent names include Googlebot (Google), Bingbot (Bing), and Baiduspider (Baidu).
How to Create a Robots.txt File in WordPress
There are two ways to create a robots.txt file in WordPress. You can choose the method that works best for you.
Method 1: Editing Robots.txt File Using All in One SEO
Most free WordPress SEO plugins, like All in One SEO (AIOSEO), Yoast, or Rank Math, allows you to customize your robots.txt file right from your WordPress dashboard.
We use AIOSEO on WPBeginner. The free version of AIOSEO helps you validate your robots.txt rule as you type, which enables you to catch syntax errors before it goes live.
Once the plugin is active, simply go to All in One SEO » Tools in your WordPress dashboard. You will land on the Robots.txt Editor. Turn on the ‘Enable Custom Robots.txt’ toggle to start editing.
The editor shows the default rules that WordPress generates on its own.
Now you can add your own rules. Enter a user agent in the ‘User Agent’ field, or use * to apply the rule to all bots.
Then choose ‘Allow’ or ‘Disallow’ in the Directive column, and type the file or folder path in the ‘Value’ field. To add another rule, click the ‘Add Rule’ button.
You can check your finalized file in the ‘Custom Robots.txt Preview’ at the bottom of the screen. It shows the full file exactly as bots will see it.
When you are done, click the ‘Save Changes’ button to save your rules.
Method 2: Editing Robots.txt File Manually Using FTP
If you’d rather edit your robots.txt file directly, then follow this method. To edit the file, you will need to use an FTP client or the file manager in your WordPress hosting panel.
Before you edit anything, download a backup copy of your current robots.txt file to your computer. That way, you can restore it if something goes wrong.
First, connect your FTP client to your WordPress website and find the robots.txt file in your website’s root folder.
If you do not see one, your site does not have a robots.txt file yet. You can create one right there.
Robots.txt is a plain text file. You can download it, edit it in any plain text editor like Notepad or TextEdit, and upload it back to your root folder.
How to Test Your Robots.txt File
After creating or editing your robots.txt file, always check it for errors. A small typo can block important pages from search engines, and you may not notice for weeks.
The easiest way to test your robots.txt file for errors is with Google Search Console.
First, make sure your site is connected to Google Search Console. If it is not, follow our guide on how to add your WordPress site to Google Search Console.
Then go to your Search Console dashboard and open Settings from the bottom-left menu. Find the ‘Crawling’ section and click ‘Open Report’ next to ‘robots.txt’.
Click the current version of the file in the list. The report shows the latest robots.txt that Google has found, and it highlights any syntax errors or logical problems it detected.
If you just updated your file and the changes are not showing up, give it a day and then check it again.
Frequently Asked Questions About WordPress Robots.txt
Here are the most common questions readers ask us about optimizing the robots.txt file in WordPress.
1. Can using robots.txt improve my site’s security?
No, robots.txt is not a security measure. The file is publicly visible, so it doesn’t actually block anyone from accessing the URLs you list. It simply provides directives for well-behaved search engine crawlers.
2. Should I block WordPress category and tag pages in robots.txt?
No, you should not block category and tag pages. These archive pages carry internal links that crawlers follow to reach your older posts, so blocking them removes a discovery path for the content you do want indexed.
3. What’s the difference between robots.txt and the noindex tag?
They control different things. Robots.txt controls whether a crawler can visit a URL at all. The noindex tag controls whether search engines list a page in search results, even if they’ve already visited it.
Use robots.txt to block crawlers from areas like your admin panel, staging environment, or plugin directories. Use noindex for pages you’re fine with Google crawling, like filtered archive pages or thank-you pages, that you just don’t want appearing in search results.
We hope this article helped you learn how to optimize your WordPress robots.txt file for SEO. You may also want to see our ultimate WordPress SEO guide and our expert picks for the best WordPress SEO tools to grow your website.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Dennis Muthomi
I have to admit, I use the AIOSEO plugin but have always ignored the “Enable Custom Robots.txt” option because I didn’t want to mess anything up.
But I have read this article and I’m convinced it’s worth taking the time to optimize my site’s robots.txt file.
Amit Banerjee
If the whole template of robots.txt was given, it would have been of help.
WPBeginner Support
We did include the entire robots.txt
Admin
Michael
I think you should modify your response. It should be https instead of http. Is it right to disallow plugin files too?
WPBeginner Support
Thank you for pointing that out, our sample has been updated. For disallowing plugins you would want to check with the specific plugin to be safe.
Moinuddin Waheed
Thanks for this informative post about robots.txt file.
I didn’t know that websites should maintain this file in order to have a control over Google bots that how should they crawl over our pages and posts.
for beginner websites just starting out, is there a need to have robots.txt file or is there a way like plugin which can a make a robots.txt file for our website?
WPBeginner Support
Most SEO plugins help with setting up the robots.txt for a new site to prevent bots from scrolling sections they shouuldn’t.
Admin
Jiří Vaněk
Thanks to this article, I checked the robots.txt file and added URL addresses with sitemaps. At the same time, I had other problematic lines there, which were revealed by the validator. I wasn’t familiar with sitemaps in robots.txt until now. Thanks.
WPBeginner Support
You’re welcome, glad our guide could help!
Admin
Stéphane
Hi,
Thanks for that post, it becomes clearer how to use the robots.txt file. On most websites that you find while looking for some advice regarding the robots.txt file, you can see that the following folders are explicitly excluded from crawling (for WordPress):
Disallow: /wp-content/plugins
Disallow: /wp-content/cache
Disallow: /wp-content/themes
I don’t really understand the reasons to exclude those folders (is there one actually?). What would be your take regarding that matter?
WPBeginner Support
It is mainly to prevent anything in those folders from showing as a result when a user searches for your site. As that is not your content it is not something most people would want to appear for the site’s results.
Admin
zaid haris
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php
GSC show the coverage error for “Disallow: /wp-admin/” Is this wrong?
WPBeginner Support
For most sites, you do not want anything from your wp-admin to appear as a search result so it is fine and expected to receive the coverage area when you deny Google the ability to scan your wp-admin.
Admin
Hansini
I am creating my robots.txt manually as you instructed for my WordPress site.
I have one doubt. when I write User-Agent: * won’t it allow another spamming robot to access my site?
Should I write User-Agent: * or User-Agent: Googlebot.?
WPBeginner Support
The User-Agent line is setting the rules that all robots should follow on your site, if you specify a specific bot on that line it would be setting rules for that specific bot and none of the others.
Admin
Nishant
What should we write to make google index my post?
WPBeginner Support
For having your site listed, you would want to take a look at our article below:
https://014.leahstevensyj.workers.dev/beginners-guide/how-do-i-get-my-wordpress-site-listed-on-google-beginners-guide/
Admin
Sanjeev Pandey
should we also disallow /wp-content/themes/ ?
It is appearing in the search result when I run the command site:abcdef.com in google search
WPBeginner Support
You would not want to worry about blocking your themes folder and as you write SEO-friendly content you should no longer see the themes as a search result.
Admin
Salem
HI, What’s means ” Disallow: /readme.html & Disallow: /refer/ ” ?
WPBeginner Support
That means you’re telling search engines to not look at any referral links or the readme.html file.
Admin
sean
Hi, what are the pros and cons of blocking wp-content/uploads
Thank you
WPBeginner Support
If you block your uploads folder then search engines would not normally crawl your uploaded content like images.
Admin
Piyush
thanks for solve my problem
WPBeginner Support
You’re welcome
Admin
Ravi kumar
Sir i m very confused about robot.txt many time i submitted site map in blogger but the after 3,4 days coming the same issue what is the exactly robot.txt.. & how submit that please guide me
WPBeginner Support
It would depend on your specific issue, you may want to take a look at our page below:
https://014.leahstevensyj.workers.dev/glossary/robots-txt/
Admin
Prem
If I no index a url or page using robots.txt file, does google shows any error in search console?
WPBeginner Support
No, Google will not list the page but if the page is listed it will not show an error.
Admin
Bharat
Hi
I have a question
i receive google search console coverage issue warning for blocked by robots.txt
/wp-admin/widgets.php
My question is, can i allow for wp-admin/widgets.php to robots.txt and this is safe?
WPBeginner Support
IF you wanted to you can but that is not a file that Google needs to crawl.
Admin
Anthony
Hi there, I’m wondering if you should allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?
WPBeginner Support
Normally, yes you should.
Admin
Jaira
May I know why you should allow /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?
WPBeginner Support
It is used by different themes and plugins to appear correctly for search engines.
Amila
Hello! I really like this article and as I’m a beginner with all this crawling stuff I would like to ask something in this regard. Recently, Google has crawled and indexed one of my websites on a really terrible way, showing the pages in search results which are deleted from the website. The website didn’t have discouraged search engine from indexing in the settings of WordPress at the beginning, but it did later after Google showed even 3 more pages in the search results (those pages also doesn’t exist) and I really don’t understand how it could happen with “discourage search engine from indexing” option on. So, can the Yoast method be helpful and make a solution for my website to Google index my website on the appropriate way this time? Thanks in advance!
WPBeginner Support
The Yoast plugin should be able to assist in ensuring the pages you have are indexed properly, there is a chance before you discouraged search engines from crawling your site your page was cached.
Admin
Amila
Well yes and from all pages, it cached the once who doesn’t exist anymore. Anyway, as the current page is on “discourage” setting on, is it better to keep it like that for now or to uncheck the box and leave the Google to crawl and index it again with Yoast help? Thanks! With your articles, everything became easier!
WPBeginner Support
You would want to have Google recrawl your site once it is set up how you want.
Pradhuman Kumar
Hi I loved the article, very precise and perfect.
Just a small suggestion kindly update the image ROBOTS.txt tester, as Google Console is changed and it would be awesome if you add the link to check the robots.txt from Google.
WPBeginner Support
Thank you for the feedback, we’ll be sure to look into updating the article as soon as we are able.
Admin
Kamaljeet Singh
My blog’s robots.txt file was:
User-Agent: *
crawl-delay: 10
After reading this post, I have changed it into your recommended robots.txt file. Is that okay that I removed crawl-delay
WPBeginner Support
It should be fine, crawl-delay tells search engines to slow down how quickly to crawl your site.
Admin
reena
Very nicely described about robot.text, i am very happy
u r very good writer
WPBeginner Support
Thank you, glad you liked our article
Admin
JJ
What is Disallow: /refer/ page ? I get a 404, is this a hidden wp file?
Editorial Staff
We use /refer/ to redirect to various affiliate links on our website. We don’t want those to be indexed since they’re just redirects and not actual content.
Admin
Sagar Arakh
Thank you for sharing. This was really helpful for me to understand robots.txt
I have updated my robots.txt to the ideal one you suggested. i will wait for the results now
WPBeginner Support
You’re welcome, glad you’re willing to use our recommendations
Admin
Akash Gogoi
Very helpful article. Thank you very much.
WPBeginner Support
Glad our article was helpful
Admin
Zingylancer
Thanks for share this useful information about us.
WPBeginner Support
Glad we could share this information about the robots.txt file
Admin
Jasper
thanks for update information for me. Your article was good for Robot txt. file. It gave me a piece of new information. thanks and keep me updating with new ideas.
WPBeginner Support
Glad our guide was helpful
Admin
Imran
Thanks , I added robots.txt in WordPress .Very good article
WPBeginner Support
Thank you, glad our article was helpful
Admin