Robots.txt Checker& Validator
Validate and test your robots.txt against Googlebot, Bingbot and other crawlers. Catch syntax errors, directive conflicts and precedence issues in seconds.
What the Robots.txt Checker Does
This tool parses your robots.txt, applies the Robots Exclusion Protocol rules, and evaluates crawler access for specific user-agents and URLs. It highlights syntax problems, conflicting directives and precedence issues so you can fix crawl blocks before they impact discovery and indexing.
🔍 How It Works
✅ What We Check
- • Core syntax: user-agent, allow, disallow, comments
- • Pattern matching: wildcards and anchors
- • Directive precedence: longest match wins
- • File placement and accessibility
- • Size and caching considerations
- • Sitemap and vendor-specific directives
Usage Tips for SEO Success
🎯 Best Practices
- • Use robots.txt to manage crawling load, not indexing
- • Test specific URLs against intended user-agents
- • Prefer minimal, explicit rules over complex patterns
- • Keep robots.txt lean and stable for better caching
- • Expose XML sitemaps via robots.txt directives
⚠️ Common Pitfalls
- • Don't block CSS/JS files needed for rendering
- • Remember: robots.txt controls crawling, not indexing
- • Changes take ~24 hours to apply due to caching
- • Keep file size well under 500 KB limit
- • Test before deploying to avoid blocking important pages
Frequently Asked Questions
Does robots.txt block indexing?
No. Robots.txt controls crawling, not indexing. Pages blocked from crawling may still be indexed if discovered via links. Use noindex meta tags or authentication to prevent indexing.
How long do changes take to apply?
Bots cache robots.txt files. Google generally refreshes about every 24 hours, so expect a delay before changes are respected by crawlers.
Is crawl-delay supported by Google?
Google ignores crawl-delay directives; Bing and some other search engines may consider it. Prefer crawl rate controls in webmaster tools or server-level rate limiting.
What's the maximum robots.txt size?
Keep your robots.txt well under 500 KB; content beyond that may be ignored by Google. Aim for concise, targeted rules rather than exhaustive lists.
About the results table
The results show: user-agent evaluated, URL tested, final access (Allowed/Disallowed), the exact rule matched, source line number, and explanatory notes about precedence or syntax issues.
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