Will an XML sitemap override a robots.txt
-
I have a client that has a robots.txt file that is blocking an entire subdomain, entirely by accident. Their original solution, not realizing the robots.txt error, was to submit an xml sitemap to get their pages indexed.
I did not think this tactic would work, as the robots.txt would take precedent over the xmls sitemap. But it worked... I have no explanation as to how or why.
Does anyone have an answer to this? or any experience with a website that has had a clear Disallow: / for months , that somehow has pages in the index?
-
The robots file will avoid google to show further information on the disallowed pages but it doesn't prevent indexation.
They're still indexed (that's why you're seeing them) but with no meta desc nor text taken from the page because google wasn't allowed to retrieve more information.
If you want them to start showing info, you'll jsut need to remove that rule from the robots.txt and soon you'll start seeing those pages information showing, but if you want them out of the index you can use GWT to remove them from the index after you've included in each page the noindex meta tag which is the only command which will prevent indexation.
-
I assumed the same thing, but I performed a site command search while they were prospects, and they had 1 result present with the explanation of "A description for this result is not available because of this site's robots.txt – learn more"
They uploaded an xml sitemap before I could tell them to remove the robots.txt. and 1 week later, the entire site is now in the index.
I have used the robots.txt to properly block websites, it usually takes 2-3 for all results to drop out the index, so I don't know how that could explain it either.
-
I agree, the only way I could think this would work would be if the robotx.txt file was on the root domain. I agree, check Webmaster tools, they will tell you under the sitemaps section about "Error: URL was blocked by robots.txt).
One thing to remember is that robots.txt is technically a suggestion to ask search engines not to crawl your site. They can choose to ignore it, though personally I don't know of any cases in which this happenned.
-
An XML sitemap shouldn't override robots.txt. If you have Google Webmaster Tools setup, you will see warnings on the sitemaps page that pages being blocked by robots are being submitted.
Now, robots.txt does not prevent indexation, just crawling. So if the pages were indexed before they implemented robots.txt, they may continue to be indexed. Google will also display just the URL for pages that it's discovered, but can't crawl because of robots.txt.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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.
Related Questions
-
Google Search console says 'sitemap is blocked by robots?
Google Search console is telling me "Sitemap contains URLs which are blocked by robots.txt." I don't understand why my sitemap is being blocked? My robots.txt look like this: User-Agent: *
Technical SEO | | Extima-Christian
Disallow: Sitemap: http://www.website.com/sitemap_index.xml It's a WordPress site, with Yoast SEO installed. Is anyone else having this issue with Google Search console? Does anyone know how I can fix this issue?1 -
Whats the best tool for a Sitemap creation?
Hi guys i like to know whats the best tool to create diferent types of Sitemap´s (images, videos, normals). I dont care if is paid.
Technical SEO | | faraujoj0 -
Robots.txt - What is the correct syntax?
Hello everyone I have the following link: http://mywebshop.dk/index.php?option=com_redshop&view=send_friend&pid=39&tmpl=component&Itemid=167 I want to prevent google from indiexing everything that is related to "view=send_friend" The problem is that its giving me dublicate content, and the content of the links has no SEO value of any sort. My problem is how i disallow it correctly via robots.txt I tried this syntax: Disallow: /view=send_friend/ However after doing a crawl on request the 200+ dublicate links that contains view=send_friend is still present in the CSV crawl report. What is the correct syntax if i want to prevent google from indexing everything that is related to this kind of link?
Technical SEO | | teleman0 -
Siemap.xml appearing in SERP
My sitemap.xml was appearing in the google serp for certain keywords (& not my actual page onsite). Please see image. I recently blocked my sitemap.xml with a robots.txt exclusion but now the sitemap.xml is not getting crawled in google webmaster. Is this the correct method of excluding the sitemap.xml for the serp? User-agent: * Disallow: /assets/cache/ Disallow: /assets/docs/ Disallow: /assets/export/ Disallow: /assets/import/ Disallow: /assets/modules/ Disallow: /assets/plugins/ Disallow: /assets/snippets/ Disallow: /manager/ Disallow: /sitemap.xml Sitemap: http://bryansryan.ie/sitemap.xml Any suggestions what should be done here? thanks. nQo2g.png
Technical SEO | | Socialdude0 -
Site not being Indexed that fast anymore, Is something wrong with this Robots.txt
My wordpress site's robots.txt used to be this: User-agent: * Disallow: Sitemap: http://www.domainame.com/sitemap.xml.gz I also have all in one SEO installed and other than posts, tags are also index,follow on my site. My new posts used to appear on google in seconds after publishing. I changed the robots.txt to following and now post indexing takes hours. Is there something wrong with this robots.txt? User-agent: * Disallow: /cgi-bin Disallow: /wp-admin Disallow: /wp-includes Disallow: /wp-content/plugins Disallow: /wp-content/cache Disallow: /wp-content/themes Disallow: /wp-login.php Disallow: /wp-login.php Disallow: /trackback Disallow: /feed Disallow: /comments Disallow: /author Disallow: /category Disallow: */trackback Disallow: */feed Disallow: */comments Disallow: /login/ Disallow: /wget/ Disallow: /httpd/ Disallow: /*.php$ Disallow: /? Disallow: /*.js$ Disallow: /*.inc$ Disallow: /*.css$ Disallow: /*.gz$ Disallow: /*.wmv$ Disallow: /*.cgi$ Disallow: /*.xhtml$ Disallow: /? Disallow: /*?Allow: /wp-content/uploads User-agent: TechnoratiBot/8.1 Disallow: ia_archiverUser-agent: ia_archiver Disallow: / disable duggmirror User-agent: duggmirror Disallow: / allow google image bot to search all imagesUser-agent: Googlebot-Image Disallow: /wp-includes/ Allow: /* # allow adsense bot on entire siteUser-agent: Mediapartners-Google* Disallow: Allow: /* Sitemap: http://www.domainname.com/sitemap.xml.gz
Technical SEO | | ideas1230 -
How will a domain change affect my rankings?
My company will undergo a domain change in the next few months. Other than implementing 301 redirects, what else can I do to help the search engines realize the site has moved? What kind of impact on rankings can I expect to see? Thanks in advance!
Technical SEO | | raylau0 -
Sitemap with links and images together
Hi there, my e-commerce platform (Magento with "Mageworx SEO Enterprise" plugin) is generating an sitemap.xml that mix text (links) and images, and the result is something like that: <url><loc>http://www.e-lustre.com.br/abajur/abajur-keops</loc>
Technical SEO | | e-Lustre
<lastmod>2011-04-10</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
<priority>1.0</priority>
image:imageimage:lochttp://www.e-lustre.com.br/catalog/product/image/size/250x250/e/-/e- lustre_mantra_0030_grande.jpg</image:loc></image:image></url> WebmasterTools accepts it, but recognize it as an image sitemap. Have you seen that kind of sitemap, and most important, do you think that's a problem ? Full file: http://www.e-lustre.com.br/sitemap.xml0 -
Need Help With Robots.txt on Magento eCommerce Site
Hello, I am having difficulty getting my robots.txt file to be configured properly. I am getting error emails from Google products stating they can't view our products because they are being blocked, and this past week, in my SEO dashboard, the URL's receiving search traffic dropped by almost 40%. Is there anyone that can offer assistance on a good template robots.txt file I can use for a Magento eCommerce website? The one I am currently using was found at this site here: e-commercewebdesign.co.uk/blog/magento-seo/magento-robots-txt-seo.php - However, I am getting problems from Google now because of it. I searched and found this thread here: http://www.magentocommerce.com/wiki/multi-store_set_up/multiple_website_setup_with_different_document_roots#the_root_folder_robots.txt_file - But I felt like maybe I should get some additional help on properly configuring a robots for a Magento site. Thanks in advance for any help. Please, let me know if you need more info to provide assistance.
Technical SEO | | JerDoggMckoy0