Robots.txt

Robots.txt is a text file that websites use to tell web crawlers and other bots how they should interact with the site’s pages. It gives instructions about which parts of the site they can or can’t access. It’s part of the Robots Exclusion Protocol (REP), a set of guidelines for managing how automated agents behave on the internet. 

The structure of a robots.txt file is pretty straightforward. It usually contains a set of rules that identify specific user agents (the web crawlers) and the pages they can or can’t visit. For example, a website owner might want search engines to index their landing and product pages, but block access to certain folders that contain sensitive or duplicate content.

While robots.txt is useful for guiding crawler behavior, it’s not a foolproof system. Most reputable search engines and bots will follow the rules laid out in the file, but not all bots will comply. Some malicious bots might ignore these guidelines completely, so it’s important to have additional security measures in place if there’s sensitive information on the site.