Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • MozCon
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      Enhance Keyword Discovery with Bulk Analysis
      Moz Pro

      Enhance Keyword Discovery with Bulk Analysis

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Access 20 years of data with flexible pricing
      Moz API

      Access 20 years of data with flexible pricing

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers

        Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. Intermediate & Advanced SEO
    4. Robots.txt: how to exclude sub-directories correctly?

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    Robots.txt: how to exclude sub-directories correctly?

    Intermediate & Advanced SEO
    3
    10
    53217
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • fablau
      fablau last edited by

      Hello here,

      I am trying to figure out the correct way to tell SEs to crawls this:

      http://www.mysite.com/directory/

      But not this:

      http://www.mysite.com/directory/sub-directory/

      or this:

      http://www.mysite.com/directory/sub-directory2/sub-directory/...

      But with the fact I have thousands of sub-directories with almost infinite combinations, I can't put the following definitions in a manageable way:

      disallow: /directory/sub-directory/

      disallow: /directory/sub-directory2/

      disallow: /directory/sub-directory/sub-directory/

      disallow: /directory/sub-directory2/subdirectory/

      etc...

      I would end up having thousands of definitions to disallow all the possible sub-directory combinations.

      So, is the following way a correct, better and shorter way to define what I want above:

      allow: /directory/$

      disallow: /directory/*

      Would the above work?

      Any thoughts are very welcome! Thank you in advance.

      Best,

      Fab.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • MickEdwards
        MickEdwards @sjunaidali last edited by

        I mentioned both.  You add a meta robots to noindex and remove from the sitemap.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • sjunaidali
          sjunaidali @MickEdwards last edited by

          But google is still free to index a link/page even if it is not included in xml sitemap.

          MickEdwards 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • MickEdwards
            MickEdwards @sjunaidali last edited by

            Install Yoast Wordpress SEO plugin and use that to restrict what is indexed and what is allowed in a sitemap.

            sjunaidali 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • sjunaidali
              sjunaidali @MickEdwards last edited by

              I am using wordpress, Enfold theme (themeforest).

              I want some files to be accessed by google, but those should not be indexed.

              Here is an example: http://prntscr.com/h8918o

              I have currently blocked some JS directories/files using robots.txt (check screenshot)

              But due to this I am not able to pass Mobile Friendly Test on Google: http://prntscr.com/h8925z (check screenshot)

              Is its possible to allow access, but use a tag like noindex in the robots.txt file. Or is there any other way out.

              MickEdwards 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • fablau
                fablau last edited by

                Yes, everything looks good, Webmaster Tools gave me the expected results with the following directives:

                allow: /directory/$

                disallow: /directory/*

                Which allows this URL:

                http://www.mysite.com/directory/

                But doesn't allow the following one:

                http://www.mysite.com/directory/sub-directory2/...

                This page also gives an update similar to mine:

                https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/156449?hl=en

                I think I am good! Thanks 🙂

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                • fablau
                  fablau last edited by

                  Thank you Michael, it is my understanding then that my idea of doing this:

                  allow: /directory/$

                  disallow: /directory/*

                  Should work just fine. I will test it within Google Webmaster Tools, and let you know if any problems arise.

                  In the meantime if anyone else has more ideas about all this and can confirm me that would be great!

                  Thank you again.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • MickEdwards
                    MickEdwards @fablau last edited by

                    I've always stuck to Disallow and followed -

                    "This is currently a bit awkward, as there is no "Allow" field. The easy way is to put all files to be disallowed into a separate directory, say "stuff", and leave the one file in the level above this directory:"

                    http://www.robotstxt.org/robotstxt.html

                    From https://developers.google.com/webmasters/control-crawl-index/docs/robots_txt this seems contradictory

                    | /* | equivalent to / | equivalent to / | Equivalent to "/" -- the trailing wildcard is ignored. |

                    I think this post will be very useful  for you - http://moz.com/community/q/allow-or-disallow-first-in-robots-txt

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • fablau
                      fablau @MickEdwards last edited by

                      Thank you Michael,

                      Google and other SEs actually recognize the "allow:" command:

                      https://developers.google.com/webmasters/control-crawl-index/docs/robots_txt

                      The fact is: if I don't specify that, how can I be sure that the following single command:

                      disallow: /directory/*

                      Doesn't prevent SEs to spider the /directory/ index as I'd like to?

                      MickEdwards 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • MickEdwards
                        MickEdwards last edited by

                        As long as you dont have directories somewhere in /* that you want indexed then I think that will work.  There is no allow so you don't need the first line just

                        disallow: /directory/*

                        You can test out here- https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/156449?rd=1

                        fablau sjunaidali 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • 1 / 1
                        • First post
                          Last post

                        Got a burning SEO question?

                        Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                        Start my free trial


                        Browse Questions

                        Explore more categories

                        • Moz Tools

                          Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                        • SEO Tactics

                          Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                        • Community

                          Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                        • Digital Marketing

                          Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                        • Research & Trends

                          Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                        • Support

                          Connect on product support and feature requests.

                        • See all categories

                        Related Questions

                        • HimalayanInstitute

                          WordPress Sub-directory for SEO

                          wordpress subdirectory domain authority

                          Hi There, I'm working on a WordPress site that includes a premium content blog with approx 900 posts. As part of the project, those 900 posts and other membership functionality will be moved from the main site to another site built specifically for content/membership. Ideally, we want the existing posts to remain on the root domain to avoid a loss in link juice/domain authority. We initially began setting up a WordPress Multisite using the sub-directory option. This allows for the main site to be at www.website.com and the secondary site to be at www.website.com/secondary. Unfortunately, the themes and plugins we need for the platform do not play nicely with WordPress Multisite, so we started seeking a new solution, and, discovered that a second instance of WordPress can be installed in a subdirectory on the server. This would give us the same subdirectory structure while bypassing WordPress Multisite and instead, having two separate single-site installs. Do you foresee any issues with this WordPress subdirectory install? Does Google care/know these are two separate WordPress installs and do we risk losing any link juice/domain authority?

                          Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | HimalayanInstitute
                          0
                        • dailynaukri

                          Duplicate without user-selected canonical excluded

                          We have pdf files uploaded in the media of wordpress and used in our website. As these pdfs are duplicate content of the original publishers, we have marked links to these pdf urls as nofollow. These pages are also disallowed in robots.txt Now, Google Search Console has shown these pages Excluded as "Duplicate without user-selected canonical" As it comes out we cannot use canonical tag with pdf pages so as to point to the original pdf source If we embed a pdf viewer in our website and fetch the pdfs by passing the urls of the original publisher, would the pdfs be still read as text by google and again create duplicate content issue? Another thing, when the pdf expires and is removed, it would lead to 404 error. If we direct our users to the third party website, then it would add up to our bounce rate. What should be the appropriate way to handle duplicate pdfs? Thanks

                          Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | dailynaukri
                          1
                        • Magne_Vidnes

                          SEO implications of moving fra a sub-folder to a root domain

                          I am considering a restructure of my site, and was hoping for some input on SEO implications which I am having some issues getting clarity in. (I will be using sample domains/urls because of language reasons, not an english site), Thinking about moving a site (all content) from example.com/parenting -> parenting.com. This is to have a site fully devoted to this theme, and more easily monitor and improve SEO performance on this content alone. Today all stats on external links, DA etc is related to the root domain, and not just this sub-department. Plus it would be a better brand-experience of the content and site. Other info/issues: -The domain parenting.com (used as example) is currently redirected to example.com/parenting. So I would have to reverse that redirect, and would also redirect all articles to the new site. The current domain example.com has a high DA (67), but the new domain parenting.com has a much lower DA  (24). Question: Would the parenting.com domain improve it's DA when not redirected and the sub-folder on the high-DA domain is redirected here instead? Would it severly hurt SEO traffic to make this change, and if so is there a strategy to make the move with as little loss in traffic as possible? How much value is in having a stand-alone domain, which also is one of the most important keywords for this theme? My doubt comes mostly from moving from a domain with high DA to a domain with much lower DA, and I am not sure about how removing the redirect would change that, or if placing a new redirect from the subfolder on the current site would help improve it. Would some DA flow over with a 301 redirect? Thanks for any advice or hints to other documentation that might be of interest for this scenario 🙂

                          Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Magne_Vidnes
                          0
                        • vtmoz

                          Linking from & to in domains and sub-domains

                          What's the best optimised linking between sub-domains and domains? And every time we'll give website link at top with logo...do we need to link sub-domain also with all it's pages? If example.com is domain and example.com/blog is sub-domain or sub-folder... Do we need to link to example.com from /blog? Do we need to give /blog link in all pages of /blog? Is there any difference in connecting domains with sub-domains and sub-folders?

                          Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | vtmoz
                          0
                        • Taiger

                          The correct hreflang for the GB

                          Hi does anyone know the correct hreflang for the UK Google webmaster error: International Targeting | Language > 'en-GB' - no return tags (sitemaps)Sitemap provided URLs and alternate URLs in 'en-GB' that do not have return tags.Thanks you all

                          Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Taiger
                          0
                        • DarinPirkey

                          Best Practices for Moving a Sub-Domain to a Sub-Folder

                          One of my clients is moving their subdomain to a subfolder on their main domain.  (ie.  blog.example.com to example.com/blog) I just wanted to get everyone's thoughts on some best practices for things we should be doing/looking for when making this move.? ie WMT, .htaccess, 301s etc? Thanks.

                          Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DarinPirkey
                          0
                        • Milian

                          Robots.txt, does it need preceding directory structure?

                          Do you need the entire preceding path in robots.txt for it to match? e.g: I know if i add Disallow: /fish to robots.txt it will block /fish
                          /fish.html
                          /fish/salmon.html
                          /fishheads
                          /fishheads/yummy.html
                          /fish.php?id=anything But would it block?: en/fish
                          en/fish.html
                          en/fish/salmon.html
                          en/fishheads
                          en/fishheads/yummy.html
                          **en/fish.php?id=anything (taken from Robots.txt Specifications)** I'm hoping it actually wont match, that way writing this particular robots.txt will be much easier! As basically I'm wanting to block many URL that have BTS- in such as: http://www.example.com/BTS-something
                          http://www.example.com/BTS-somethingelse
                          http://www.example.com/BTS-thingybob But have other pages that I do not want blocked, in subfolders that also have BTS- in, such as: http://www.example.com/somesubfolder/BTS-thingy
                          http://www.example.com/anothersubfolder/BTS-otherthingy Thanks for listening

                          Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Milian
                          0
                        • workathomecareers

                          Should comments and feeds be disallowed in robots.txt?

                          Hi My robots file is currently set up as listed below. From an SEO point of view is it good to disallow feeds, rss and comments? I feel allowing comments would be a good thing because it's new content that may rank in the search engines as the comments left on my blog often refer to questions or companies folks are searching for more information on. And the comments are added regularly. What's your take? I'm also concerned about the /page being blocked. Not sure how that benefits my blog from an SEO point of view as well. Look forward to your feedback. Thanks. Eddy User-agent: Googlebot Crawl-delay: 10 Allow: /* User-agent: * Crawl-delay: 10 Disallow: /wp- Disallow: /feed/ Disallow: /trackback/ Disallow: /rss/ Disallow: /comments/feed/ Disallow: /page/ Disallow: /date/ Disallow: /comments/ # Allow Everything Allow: /*

                          Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | workathomecareers
                          0

                        Get started with Moz Pro!

                        Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                        Start my free trial
                        Products
                        • Moz Pro
                        • Moz Local
                        • Moz API
                        • Moz Data
                        • STAT
                        • Product Updates
                        Moz Solutions
                        • SMB Solutions
                        • Agency Solutions
                        • Enterprise Solutions
                        • Digital Marketers
                        Free SEO Tools
                        • Domain Authority Checker
                        • Link Explorer
                        • Keyword Explorer
                        • Competitive Research
                        • Brand Authority Checker
                        • Local Citation Checker
                        • MozBar Extension
                        • MozCast
                        Resources
                        • Blog
                        • SEO Learning Center
                        • Help Hub
                        • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                        • How-to Guides
                        • Moz Academy
                        • API Docs
                        About Moz
                        • About
                        • Team
                        • Careers
                        • Contact
                        Why Moz
                        • Case Studies
                        • Testimonials
                        Get Involved
                        • Become an Affiliate
                        • MozCon
                        • Webinars
                        • Practical Marketer Series
                        • MozPod
                        Connect with us

                        Contact the Help team

                        Join our newsletter
                        Moz logo
                        © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                        • Accessibility
                        • Terms of Use
                        • Privacy

                        Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.