robots.txt is crucial to the SEO of WordPress websites, and can guide search engines to crawl behavior, avoid duplicate content and improve efficiency. 1. Block system paths such as /wp-admin/ and /wp-includes/, but avoid accidentally blocking the /uploads/ directory; 2. Add Sitemap paths such as Sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml to help search engines quickly discover site maps; 3. Limit /page/ and URLs with parameters to reduce crawler waste, but be careful not to block important archive pages; 4. Avoid common mistakes such as accidentally blocking the entire site, cache plug-ins affect updates, and ignore mobile and subdomain configurations. After each modification, the syntax should be tested and periodically checked to ensure it takes effect.
In the SEO optimization of WordPress websites, robots.txt files are an often overlooked but very important part. It can tell search engines which pages can be crawled and which need to be avoided, thereby avoiding duplicate content and improving crawling efficiency. However, many people just copy a template casually and do not adjust it based on their site structure, which may be counterproductive.
The following aspects are the most important things you should pay attention to when optimizing WordPress robots.txt:
1. Block directories and files that do not need to be included
One of the main functions of robots.txt is to prevent search engines from accessing content you don't want it to see. For example, WordPress system paths such as /wp-admin/
and /wp-includes/
usually do not need to be crawled. If you leave it alone, you will waste crawler resources.
You can write this way:
User-agent: * Disallow: /wp-admin/ Disallow: /wp-includes/ Disallow: /wp-content/plugins/ Disallow: /wp-content/themes/
Note: The static resources generated by some plug-ins are placed under
/wp-content/uploads/
, and this directory is generally not blocked.
2. Set the Sitemap path reasonably
Although not required, adding sitemap links to robots.txt helps search engines discover your sitemap faster, especially new sites or websites with low traffic.
The addition method is as follows:
Sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml
If you are using plugins like Yoast SEO or Rank Math, they will usually generate sitemap addresses automatically. Confirm whether your sitemap path is correct and then fill it in.
3. Handle paging and parameter URLs
Many WordPress sites use pagination (such as /page/2/
) or URLs with parameters (such as search results ?s=xxx
). The content of these pages is highly duplicated, which can easily cause crawlers to waste resources.
Consider limiting these paths in robots.txt:
Disallow: /page/ Disallow: /*?s=
Be careful, however, if some paging is an important archive page (such as a list of classified articles), it is not suitable to be completely prohibited, otherwise it will affect inclusion.
4. Avoid common mistakes
- Incorrectly blocking useful pages : For example, accidentally writing
Disallow: /
will cause the entire website to be blocked and the search engine will no longer crawl. - Cache plug-ins affect updates : Some cache plug-ins will cache robots.txt. Remember to clear the cache after modification to ensure it takes effect.
- Ignore mobile and subdomain : If you have a mobile version or subdomain (such as m.yourdomain.com or blog.yourdomain.com), each need to configure robots.txt separately.
Basically these are the operations. robots.txt looks simple, but if something goes wrong, it may affect the performance of the entire website. Therefore, it is best to test whether the syntax is correct before each modification. You can use the robots.txt test tool in Google Search Console to verify it.
After optimization, don’t forget to check regularly, especially when the website structure is adjusted or the SEO plug-in is replaced.
The above is the detailed content of How to optimize WordPress robots txt. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!

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