My robot.txt file

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by Ckrismoney, Apr 9, 2011.

  1. #1
    My robot.txt file says this:

    User-agent: *
    Disallow:


    does this harm my seo efforts in anyway?
     
    Ckrismoney, Apr 9, 2011 IP
  2. RamCity

    RamCity Peon

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    #2

    Well... No. It won't harm.

    NULL value of DISALLOW: is guiding the crawler to crawl the entire site, and not blocking anything. But if you do use CMS or any Login/Admin section, then you should put the in DISALLOW: list.
     
    RamCity, Apr 9, 2011 IP
  3. Matt Jo

    Matt Jo Member

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    #3
    I tried creating one on Google and it gave me:

    User-agent: *
    Allow:

    is that bad?

    my current one can be found under my domain wegotthiscovered. com but it uses disallow.
     
    Matt Jo, Apr 9, 2011 IP
  4. bekar09

    bekar09 Active Member

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    #4
    A blank Disallow means that you dont want search engines to block indexing any part of your site. Does not harm your seo efforts in any way.

    @Matt Jo: it is not bad if you dont want to restrict search engines to index any part of your website.
     
    bekar09, Apr 9, 2011 IP
  5. Matt Jo

    Matt Jo Member

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    #5
    so which should I use

    User-agent: *
    Allow:

    or

    User-agent: *
    Disallow:
     
    Matt Jo, Apr 9, 2011 IP
  6. bekar09

    bekar09 Active Member

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    #6
    Hey Matt both are same. You can use either.

    btw, I see that your site is an authority site. Your categories are well indexed in Google. Are you simply trying to market you site here at DP forum ;)...
     
    bekar09, Apr 9, 2011 IP
  7. Matt Jo

    Matt Jo Member

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    #7
    they're the same? but one says allow and one says disallow?? lol

    and I have no idea what an authority site means but no I'm not trying to market my site, I'm trying to learn more about SEO
     
    Matt Jo, Apr 9, 2011 IP
  8. bekar09

    bekar09 Active Member

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    #8
    Correct, one says allow and the other disallow. But you're not mentioning any directory or path for that allow/disallow. See if you're using wordpress, and if you dont want search engines to index your "wp-admin" folder then you should write

    Well an authority site is a site for which google search will display the list of categories. You can read more at the google webmaster blog.
     
    bekar09, Apr 9, 2011 IP
  9. Matt Jo

    Matt Jo Member

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    #9
    should I tell it to disallow my wp-admin?
     
    Matt Jo, Apr 9, 2011 IP
  10. bekar09

    bekar09 Active Member

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    #10
    yes you should. Please go ahead and copy my robots.txt and modify it to suit your needs.
     
    bekar09, Apr 9, 2011 IP
  11. Matt Jo

    Matt Jo Member

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    #11
    I already have it set to noindex in my Wordpress SEO settings, do I need to do it again? Although I find it odd that in Wordpress SEO it says it's no index yet it doesn't mention it in the robots.txt
     
    Matt Jo, Apr 9, 2011 IP
  12. bekar09

    bekar09 Active Member

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    #12
    I dont know what wordpress seo setting you're talking about.
     
    bekar09, Apr 9, 2011 IP
  13. Matt Jo

    Matt Jo Member

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    #13
    it's a plugin by Yoast
     
    Matt Jo, Apr 9, 2011 IP
  14. bekar09

    bekar09 Active Member

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    #14
    See Joost de Valk of yoast is a renowned SEO expert. I don't think his plugins will be buggy. Or if you still think that it is a bug, then go ahead and contact him.
     
    bekar09, Apr 9, 2011 IP
  15. ethandavis

    ethandavis Peon

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    #15
    No, it won't harm unless you don't want one of your page to be crawled.
     
    ethandavis, Apr 11, 2011 IP
  16. TimHillSEO

    TimHillSEO Well-Known Member

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    #16
    I would add one more line in there so it reads:

    User-agent: *
    Sitemap: [Full url of sitemap.xml file]
    Allow:


    Search engine crawlers other than Google often look here for your sitemap location so it keeps you covered (I'm assuming you have a sitemap.xml file - if not, get one!)
     
    TimHillSEO, Apr 11, 2011 IP