Why robots.txt is important for WordPress websites

Setting up robots.txt for your WordPress website is an essential task that must be taken care of. Robots.txt is a text file that tells search engine crawlers which pages or sections of your website they should or should not index. It gives you control over how search engines access, crawl, and index your website pages.

How to set up robots.txt file in WordPress

Here’s a step-by-step guide to setting up the robots.txt file in WordPress:

Step 1: Access the robots.txt file in WordPress

The easiest way to access the robots.txt file in WordPress is to log in to your dashboard, navigate to “Settings” > “Reading,” and check the box next to “Discourage search engines from indexing this site.” This creates a basic robots.txt file that tells search crawlers not to scan your site.

Step 2: Create a robots.txt file for WordPress

To customize the robots.txt file to give specific instructions to each search engine bot, directly edit the file. Create a file named exactly “robots.txt” using a text editor like Notepad, Notepad++, or Sublime Text. Define instructions for search engines by using the “Disallow” command followed by the name of the folder or file you want blocked.

Step 3: Upload the robots.txt file to WordPress Site

Upload the robots.txt file to the root directory of your WordPress website using FTP or your web hosting control panel. Type “/robots.txt” after the domain name to ensure that the file has been uploaded correctly.

Conclusion

Setting up the robots.txt file is crucial for website owners to control search engine crawlers’ access and improve WordPress SEO. It ensures that your website is indexed with the pages that you want and protects sensitive areas of your WordPress site that should not be indexed.