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.

      Track AI Overviews in Keyword Research
      Moz Pro

      Track AI Overviews in Keyword Research

      Try it free!
    • 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

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      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
    53165
    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

                        • rayatarh545123

                          Why some domains and sub-domains have same DA, but some others don't?

                          Hi I noticed for some blog providers in my country, which provide a sub-domian address for their blogs. the sub-domain authority is exactly as the main domain. Whereas, for some other blog providers  every subdomain has its different and lower authority. for example "ffff.blog.ir" and "blog.ir" both have domain authority of 60. It noteworthy to mention that the "ffff.blog.ir" does not even exist! This is while mihanblog.com and hfilm.mihanblog.com has diffrent page authority.

                          Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | rayatarh545123
                          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
                        • andyheath

                          Will disallowing URL's in the robots.txt file stop those URL's being indexed by Google

                          I found a lot of duplicate title tags showing in Google Webmaster Tools. When I visited the URL's that these duplicates belonged to, I found that they were just images from a gallery that we didn't particularly want Google to index. There is no benefit to the end user in these image pages being indexed in Google. Our developer has told us that these urls are created by a module and are not "real" pages in the CMS. They would like to add the following to our robots.txt file Disallow: /catalog/product/gallery/ QUESTION: If the these pages are already indexed by Google, will this adjustment to the robots.txt file help to remove the pages from the index? We don't want these pages to be found.

                          Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | andyheath
                          0
                        • magusara

                          How to outrank a directory listing with high DA but low PA?

                          My site is at 4th place, 3 places above it is a gumtree (similar to yell, yelp) listing. How can you figure out how difficult it would be outrank those pages? I mean obviously the pages would have low PA and they are top based on the high DA of the site. This also seems to go back to keyword research and difficulty, when I'm doing keyword research and I see a wikipedia site in top 5 rank, or a yell.com or perhaps an article in forbes.com outranks your site. Typically the problem seems to be Google giving a lot of credit to these pages rankings based on the high DA rather than PA of the pages. How would you gauge the difficulty of that keyword then if the competition are pages with very high DA which is impossible to compete with but low PA? Thanks

                          Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | magusara
                          2
                        • 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
                        • JohnW-UK

                          Best way to block a sub-domain from being indexed

                          Hello, The search engines have indexed a sub-domain I did not want indexed its on old.domain.com and dev.domain.com - I was going to password them but is there a best practice way to block them. My main domain default robots.txt says :- Sitemap: http://www.domain.com/sitemap.xml global User-agent: *
                          Disallow: /cgi-bin/
                          Disallow: /wp-admin/
                          Disallow: /wp-includes/
                          Disallow: /wp-content/plugins/
                          Disallow: /wp-content/cache/
                          Disallow: /wp-content/themes/
                          Disallow: /trackback/
                          Disallow: /feed/
                          Disallow: /comments/
                          Disallow: /category//
                          Disallow: */trackback/
                          Disallow: */feed/
                          Disallow: /comments/
                          Disallow: /?

                          Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JohnW-UK
                          0
                        • cos2030

                          Archiving a festival website - subdomain or directory?

                          Hi guys I look after a festival website whose program changes year in and year out. There are a handful of mainstay events in the festival which remain each year, but there are a bunch of other events which change each year around the mainstay programming.This often results in us redoing the website each year (a frustrating experience indeed!) We don't archive our past festivals online, but I'd like to start doing so for a number of reasons 1. These past festivals have historical value - they happened, and they contribute to telling the story of the festival over the years. They can also be used as useful windows into the upcoming festival. 2. The old events (while no longer running) often get many social shares, high quality links and in some instances still drive traffic. We try out best to 301 redirect these high value pages to the new festival website, but it's not always possible to find a similar alternative (so these redirects often go to the homepage) Anyway, I've noticed some festivals archive their content into a subdirectory - i.e. www.event.com/2012 However, I'm thinking it would actually be easier for my team to archive via a subdomain like 2012.event.com - and always use the www.event.com URL for the current year's event. I'm thinking universally redirecting the content would be easier, as would cloning the site / database etc. My question is - is one approach (i.e. directory vs. subdomain) better than the other? Do I need to be mindful of using a subdomain for archival purposes? Hope this all makes sense. Many thanks!

                          Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | cos2030
                          0
                        • essdee

                          Merging Domains... Sub-domains, Directories or Seperate Sites?

                          Hello! I am hoping you can help me decide the best path to take here... A little background: I'm moving to a new company that has three old domains (the oldest is 10 years old), which get a lot of traffic from their e-letters. Until recently they have not cared about SEO. So the websites have some structural, coding, URL and other issues. The sites are indexed, but have a problem getting crawled and/or indexed for new content - haven't delved into this yet but am certain I will be able to fix any of these issues. These three domains are PR4, PR4, PR5 and contain hundreds of unique articles. Here's the question... They want to move these three sites **to their main company site (PR4) and create sub domains for each one. ** I am wondering if this is a good idea or not. I have merged sites before (creating categories and/or directories) and the end result is that the ONE big site, is much for effective than TWO smaller, less authoritative sites. But the sub domain idea is something I am unsure about from an SEO perspective. Should we do this with sub domains? Or do you think we should keep the sites separate? How do Panda and Penguin play into this? Thanks in advance for the help! SD P.S. I'm not a huge advocate in using PR as a measurement tool, but since I can't reveal the actual domains, I figured I would list it as a reference point.

                          Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | essdee
                          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.