robotstxtEinstellungen

The `robots.txt` file is a simple text file used by website administrators to instruct web crawlers, such as search engine bots, how to access and index pages on their website. It is placed in the root directory of a domain (e.g., `https://example.com/robots.txt`) and follows a standardized syntax defined by the [Robots Exclusion Protocol](https://www.robotstxt.org/). While it does not enforce restrictions—bots may ignore or override these rules—it serves as a guideline for proper crawling behavior.

A basic `robots.txt` file consists of directives for specific user agents (e.g., `Googlebot`, `Bingbot`) and paths to be allowed or disallowed. The most common directives include:

- `User-agent: *` – Applies rules to all bots.

- `Disallow: /` – Blocks all access to the website.

- `Allow: /public/` – Permits access to a specific directory.

- `Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml` – Specifies a sitemap location for bots to discover.

Comments in the file begin with a `#` and are ignored by crawlers. For example:

`# Block search engines from indexing admin pages`

`Disallow: /admin/`

While `robots.txt` is useful for directing bots, it should not be relied upon for sensitive content protection. Meta tags (e.g., `noindex`) or server-side authentication are more effective for restricting access. Additionally, some bots may not respect `robots.txt` rules, particularly if they are scraping data rather than indexing pages.

Testing and validating a `robots.txt` file can be done using tools like Google’s [Robots Testing Tool](https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/robots-testing-tool) or the [W3C Robots.txt Checker](https://validator.w3.org/robots/). Proper configuration ensures efficient crawling while maintaining privacy and performance.