The robots.txt file guides search engine crawlers on which parts of a website they can or cannot access. It’s a crucial tool for managing crawl budgets, protecting sensitive pages, and optimizing SEO performance.Search Engine Land has published an article answering the question, ‘Robots.txt: SEO landmine or secret weapon?’.Willie Vitari says, “Robots.txt is a text file that tells search engine crawlers which parts of your website they can and cannot access. When incorrectly configured, this simple file can destroy months of SEO work with a single misplaced character.Picture... [...]

Google Search Central has published the latest episode of the Search Off the Record podcast titled ‘Handling Dupes – Same Same or Different?’.The podcast features Allan Scott, John Mueller and Martin Splitt.The GSC team says, “In this episode of Search Off the Record, John and Martin talk to Allan Scott from the Google Search team that handles duplicate content. They explore how Google Search deals with duplicated content, clustering, and canonicalization.” [...]

A robots.txt file is a simple text file used by websites to communicate with web crawlers and search engine bots. It specifies which parts of a site should not be crawled or indexed, helping manage search engine traffic and protect sensitive or irrelevant content.Google Search Central has published the latest episode of the Search Off the Record podcast titled ‘How Robots.txt Works’.The GSC team says, “What is a robots.txt file and how does it impact website indexability? Join Martin Splitt on this Search Lightning Talk as he covers how robots.txt interacts with robots meta... [...]