Guides / SEO
How to create a robots.txt file
What robots.txt does, common mistakes, and a safe starter pattern.
Updated 2026-08-24
## What robots.txt is for
It gives crawlers hints about which paths they may fetch. It is not a security boundary.
## Minimal useful example
Allow public pages, block private admin areas, and point to your sitemap.
## Common mistakes
- Blocking CSS/JS needed to render the page
- Using robots.txt to “hide” confidential URLs (use authentication instead)
- Forgetting HTTPS sitemap URLs
## Generate yours
Use the Robots.txt Generator, then host the file at your domain root.
Related tools
- Robots.txt Generator — Build a robots.txt file with allow/disallow rules and sitemap URL.
- Sitemap Generator — Generate a basic XML sitemap from a list of URLs.