Robotstiedosto

The Robotstiedosto, often referred to as the robots.txt file, is a text file placed in the root directory of a website that provides instructions to web crawlers, commonly known as bots. These bots are software programs used by search engines like Google, Bing, and others to discover and index web pages. The primary purpose of the robots.txt file is to control which parts of a website crawlers can access and crawl.

This file follows a simple syntax, allowing web administrators to specify rules for different bots. For example, an administrator can disallow crawling of specific directories or files by listing them under a "Disallow" directive. Conversely, they can allow access to all parts of a site by using a "Allow" directive, though this is often implied if no specific disallow rules are present. The "User-agent" directive identifies the specific bot the rules apply to, and the wildcard character "*" can be used to represent all bots.

While robots.txt is a standard practice for website management, it is important to note that it is a voluntary protocol. Malicious bots or crawlers that do not adhere to the robots.txt file may still access disallowed content. Therefore, for truly sensitive information, other security measures like password protection or IP address blocking should be employed. The robots.txt file is primarily a tool for efficient and organized web crawling by legitimate search engine bots.