What is a robots.txt file?

A robots.txt file tells search engine crawlers which pages or files they can or cannot request from your site. It helps control indexing and optimize SEO.

Do I need a sitemap in robots.txt?

It’s highly recommended to include your sitemap in robots.txt. This helps search engines discover and crawl your pages efficiently.

Can I block specific bots with robots.txt?

Yes. You can target specific user-agents such as Googlebot, Bingbot, or others and allow/disallow them accordingly.

Is robots.txt mandatory for SEO?

No. It’s optional, but strongly recommended for managing crawl budget, blocking private areas, and improving SEO structure.

Tools Cube

robots.txt Generator

Generate a clean robots.txt with multiple user-agents, rules, sitemaps, and helpful presets.

Presets

Start fast, then customize below.

Pretty print

Global

Host, sitemaps, and optional comments.

Host (optional)

Sitemaps

Comment (appears as # lines)

Custom directives (advanced)

These lines will be appended as-is. Use carefully.

User-Agents & Rules

Add allow/disallow paths, delay, and clean parameters per bot.

User-agent

Type

Path (supports * and $)

Remove

No explicit rules. This means allow all for this agent (equivalent to Disallow:).

Crawl-delay (sec)

Clean parameters (comma-separated)

Used by some crawlers to ignore tracking params (legacy).

1 agent(s)4 lines

Preview

Review and export your robots.txt.

# robots.txt generated by Tools Cube

User-agent: *
Disallow:

Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml

Tips

Use wildcards (*) and end-anchors ($) for patterns. Keep sensitive content off the web; robots.txt is public.

robots.txt

Disallow prevents compliant bots from crawling; it doesn’t hide URLs.
Place robots.txt at the root: https://your-domain.com/robots.txt.
Add Sitemap: lines for each sitemap URL (XML index or individual files).
Prefer Allow: exceptions before broad Disallow patterns for clarity.
Test with Google Search Console’s robots tester where available.