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name: robots-txt description: "Use when applies to any public website. Use when auditing technical SEO foundations or diagnosing crawl coverage gaps." metadata: category: seo priority: high difficulty: beginner estimatedTime: "10" source: frontendchecklist.io url: https://frontendchecklist.io/rules/seo/robots-txt

Publish a robots.txt file

robots.txt is the first file crawlers fetch; misconfigured directives can silently block search engines from crawling your entire site, killing organic visibility.

Quick Reference

• Serve a valid robots.txt at /robots.txt on the production domain, returning HTTP 200
• Include a Sitemap: directive pointing to your XML sitemap
• Never disallow crawling of CSS/JS assets that render your pages
• Avoid blocking all crawlers with Disallow: / on a live site

Check

Fetch /robots.txt on the live domain and verify it returns HTTP 200, uses correct User-agent / Disallow / Allow syntax, and includes a Sitemap: directive pointing to the XML sitemap. Check for accidental Disallow: / directives.

Fix

Create or update robots.txt at the web root with valid directives. Add a live Sitemap: line for the production sitemap URL. Remove any Disallow: / rules that block the whole site or resources needed for rendering.

Explain

Explain how robots.txt controls crawler access, why an accidental Disallow: / can delist a site, and why CSS/JS must remain accessible for rendering-based indexing.

Code Review

Review metadata generation, rendered HTML, structured data, and response headers related to Publish a robots.txt file. Flag exact routes or templates where search-facing output violates the rule, and describe how to verify the final page output.

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For full implementation details, code examples, and framework-specific guidance, see references/rule.md.

Rule page: https://frontendchecklist.io/rules/seo/robots-txt