Understanding robots.txt optimisation to improve your SEO

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Optimising robots.txt files

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In the world of referencingThere are a multitude of essential elements that influence the visibility of your website on search engines such as Google.

These include the robots.txt file, a key tool for controlling and optimising the pages indexed by search engines.

In this article, we take an in-depth look at the role and principles of optimising robots.txt files to improve your strategy. SEO.

The robots.txt file: what is it?

Le robots.txt file is a small text file located at the root of your website. It provides instructions to the indexing robots of the various search engines (such as Googlebot, Bingbot) about which parts of your website they can and cannot crawl and index.

So the robots.txt file plays a key role in the crucial role in referencing of your site, because it allows you to guide the search engines through the content they need to take into account when ranking your site.

Why use a robots.txt file?

There are several main reasons why you might want to optimise your robots.txt file. Here they are:

1. Preserving the budget crawl : Indexing robots have a limited crawl budget when they visit your website. By using a robots.txt file, you can tell the robots which pages should not be analysed and thus save the crawling time allocated to your site.
2. Avoid duplicate content : If you have multiple versions of the same page, search engines may consider this to be duplicate content. By blocking access to these pages in your robots.txt file, you prevent search engines from penalising them.
3. Protecting sensitive information : Although it is not recommended to rely solely on a robots.txt file to protect your data, it can help deter malicious robots from crawling certain parts of your site containing sensitive information.

How to create and optimise robots.txt files

Creating and optimising a robots.txt file is a simple process that can produce highly beneficial results for your SEO. Here are a few steps to achieve this:

1. Create a text file

To create a robots.txt file, simply open a text editor (such as Notepad) and save it with the name "robots.txt". Do not include any spaces or special characters in the name.

2. Add User-agent and Disallow directives

Once you have created your file, start by telling the search engines which robot should follow your instructions using the directive User-agent. For example, to send your instructions to all robots, use User-agent : *. Next, list the parts of your site that you want to block using the Disallow. For example : Disallow : /dossier-non-index/.

3. Block or authorise access to specific files and directories

As well as blocking entire sections of your site, the robots.txt file can also be used to authorise or prohibit access to particular files or directories. To do this, use the following syntax:

• • To block a specific file : Disallow : /fichier-interdit.html
  • To block an entire directory : Disallow : /secrets-directory/
  • To authorise access to a file in a prohibited directory : Allow : /secrets-directory/authorised-file.html.

4. Provide the location of the XML sitemap

We also recommend that you include the location of your sitemap.xml in your robots.txt file to help search engines discover all your pages. Add this line with the full address of your sitemap: Sitemap : https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml.

Common mistakes and good practice

To get the most out of your robots.txt file, it's important to be aware of potential errors and to follow good practice. Here are a few things to bear in mind when creating and optimising your robots.txt file:

• Make sure you place the robots.txt file at the root of your site.
• Don't overload your file with too many rules, as this can make it difficult for search engines to interpret.
• For files or directories to which you want to block access, make sure you do not accidentally allow access elsewhere in your file.
• Use dedicated tools (such as Google Search Console) to test and validate your changes before applying them to your production site.
• Do not use the robots.txt file as an absolute security measure to protect your sensitive data.
• Regularly review your robots.txt file to ensure that the instructions still correspond to the current structure of your website.

In short, a well-optimised robots.txt file is an essential component of any SEO strategy file. By taking the time to understand its role, and to create and optimise this file correctly, you will be able to improve the quality of your website. referencing of your site and achieve significant results in terms of visibility and traffic.