How to Use Robots.txt to Control Search Engine Crawling (2025 Guide)

The robots.txt file is a small but powerful configuration tool that tells search engines which parts of your website they can or cannot access.
When used correctly, it helps optimize crawl efficiency, protect sensitive areas, and improve SEO performance. When used incorrectly, it can deindex your entire site overnight.

What Is Robots.txt

The robots.txt file is a plain text document located at the root of your domain — for example:

https://example.com/robots.txt

It communicates directly with web crawlers (like Googlebot, Bingbot, or GPTBot) to define which folders or pages should be crawled and which should be excluded.

Every time a bot visits your site, it first checks this file to understand your crawl preferences.

How Robots.txt Works

The file follows a simple logic:

Allow: (optional) lets bots access certain files within restricted folders
User-agent: specifies the bot (e.g., Googlebot, Bingbot)
Disallow: specifies folders or pages the bot should not crawl

User-agent: *
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php

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

This setup is ideal for WordPress: it blocks access to administrative areas but allows crawling of the AJAX file required for proper plugin functionality.

How to Disallow Everything

To block all bots from crawling your site, use:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Warning: Never use this directive on a live site. It will remove your website from Google and cause a complete loss of organic traffic until corrected.

How to Allow Everything

To allow all crawlers full access, you can leave your robots.txt file empty or use:

User-agent: *
Disallow:

This means “disallow nothing,” so all content is accessible to search engines.

How to Block Specific Files or Folders

You can prevent bots from accessing specific paths by listing them individually:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /drafts/
Disallow: /hidden/file.html

Everything not listed remains crawlable.

How to Block Specific Bots

User-agent: Bingbot
Disallow: /

User-agent: *
Disallow:

This example blocks only Bingbot, while Googlebot and other crawlers can still access your website.

A Recommended Robots.txt for WordPress (2025 Edition)

The following configuration is SEO-friendly and compatible with Google Search Console:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php

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

Best Practices

Always include the URL of your XML sitemap.
Test your configuration with the Google Search Console Robots.txt Tester.
Use lowercase paths to avoid discrepancies across environments.

Robots.txt vs Noindex

If your goal is to prevent pages from appearing in search results, use the noindex tag rather than blocking them via robots.txt.

<meta name="robots" content="noindex,follow">

Why this matters: a URL blocked by robots.txt may still appear in search results, but without a meta description.
Using noindex allows crawlers to access the page while ensuring it is not displayed in search results.

Plugins such as Yoast SEO, Rank Math, or The SEO Framework make it simple to apply the noindex directive to specific pages or categories.

When to Block Your Entire Site

If you want to restrict access entirely (for both users and bots), use password protection rather than robots.txt.
A free WordPress plugin such as Password Protected is ideal for staging or development environments.

Important Facts About Robots.txt

Not all bots respect robots.txt directives — malicious crawlers often ignore them.
The robots.txt file is public. Do not list confidential directories in it.
A single typo (for example, Disallow: / instead of Disallow: /admin/) can deindex an entire site.
Always back up and validate your file before deployment.

AI Overview: Robots.txt and AI Crawlers in 2025

In 2025, major AI companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind operate their own crawlers (for example, GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended).
If you want to prevent your content from being used in AI training datasets, include the following directives:

User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /

User-agent: Google-Extended
Disallow: /

User-agent: ClaudeBot
Disallow: /

This ensures your website’s content is excluded from AI model indexing and training.

Key Takeaways

Place robots.txt in the root directory of your website (e.g., /public_html/robots.txt).
Use Allow and Disallow carefully; a misplaced slash can have critical SEO consequences.
Always include your XML sitemap.
Validate your configuration in Google Search Console before publishing.
Avoid Disallow: / on production sites.
Consider blocking AI crawlers if content protection is a priority.

SEO Optimization Summary

SEO Element	Optimized Content
Primary Keyword	robots.txt file
Secondary Keywords	disallow all, allow all, block bots, WordPress robots.txt, AI crawlers
Meta Title	How to Use Robots.txt to Control Search Engine Crawling (2025 SEO Guide)
Meta Description	Learn how to configure your robots.txt file correctly in 2025 to control crawlers, protect content, and maintain SEO performance — including how to block AI crawlers.
Slug	/robots-txt-guide-2025
Schema Type	Article
Target Length	~1,300 words