Google Updates Robots.txt Policy Ignoring Unsupported Fields

Google has made a significant update to its robots.txt policy, clarifying that it will now only support four specific fields in the file: User-agent, Allow, Disallow, and Sitemap. Any other directives or unsupported fields present in the robots.txt file will be ignored by Google’s crawlers. This change highlights the importance of maintaining a clean and compliant robots.txt file to ensure search engines interact with your site as intended.

The key takeaway for website owners and developers is to review their robots.txt files and remove any unsupported directives. As Google’s bots will now bypass these, failing to update could lead to unintended crawling behaviour. This update emphasises the need to keep robots.txt files concise, focusing only on the fields Google officially recognises. Regular audits are recommended to ensure your site remains optimised for Google’s indexing practices.

Key Update

Google has clarified that its crawlers will not recognise any fields in robots.txt files that aren’t explicitly listed in its official documentation. This move is part of the company’s ongoing effort to provide clearer guidance for website owners, developers, and SEO professionals. The update ensures that everyone understands exactly which directives are supported and which will be disregarded by Google’s crawlers.

In a recent statement, Google emphasised the importance of following its guidelines: “We sometimes receive questions about fields that aren’t listed as supported, and we want to make it clear that they are not.” This means that any unsupported directives included in the robots.txt file will simply be ignored, and they will not influence how Google crawls or indexes a site.

Google’s robots.txt file supports only a limited number of fields, and this clarification serves as a reminder to website administrators to review their current robots.txt configurations. Those using unsupported fields may need to audit and adjust their files to ensure they align with Google’s official recommendations, ensuring their site performs well in search rankings.

Google’s latest update is intended to reduce confusion surrounding the robots.txt file by clarifying which directives are supported. The company has emphasised that only a select few fields are recognised by its crawlers, and any directives outside of those specified will simply be ignored. This clarification is part of an ongoing effort to ensure that website owners and developers are working within the correct parameters to optimise how their sites are indexed by Google.

The update serves as a reminder that relying on unsupported fields in robots.txt files may lead to unintended consequences, such as pages not being indexed or crawled as expected. Google wants to make sure that its users are aware of the limitations and only use the fields that have been explicitly supported in its documentation. This should help avoid any confusion that might arise from mistakenly believing certain directives are being followed when they’re not.

For website owners, this update provides an opportunity to audit their current robots.txt files and ensure they comply with Google’s guidance. Ensuring that unsupported directives are removed and only supported fields are used will lead to better optimisation for search engine crawlers. In the long run, this will result in more accurate indexing and potentially improved rankings for websites.

What This Means:

Stick to Approved Fields: Ensure that your robots.txt file only includes the fields that are specifically listed in Google’s documentation. Using unsupported fields could result in Google ignoring those instructions, which may impact how your website is crawled and indexed.

Review Robots.txt Files: It’s essential to audit your existing robots.txt files to check for unsupported or obsolete directives. Regularly reviewing these files will help you stay compliant with Google’s guidelines and prevent any unintentional crawling issues that might affect your website’s visibility.

Be Aware of Restrictions: Google’s crawlers are designed to recognize only a set number of official fields. Custom or third-party directives that fall outside of this supported list may be ignored, meaning those instructions will not be followed. Understanding this limitation can help ensure your site is indexed as intended.

Supported Fields:

According to the updated documentation, Google officially supports the following fields in robots.txt files:

User-agent: This field specifies which web crawlers or user agents the subsequent rules will apply to. By identifying specific user agents, website owners can tailor their directives to either allow or restrict access for particular crawlers, ensuring that only the desired bots interact with their site.
Allow: This directive is used to indicate which specific pages or directories are permitted for access by the designated user-agent. By using this field, site owners can grant permission to crawlers to index certain content while maintaining control over other sections of the site that may not be ready for indexing or that contain sensitive information.
Disallow: This directive serves the opposite purpose of the Allow field. It specifies which pages or directories should not be accessed by the designated user-agent. This is crucial for preventing search engines from indexing areas of a website that may be under construction, duplicate content, or any information that the site owner wishes to keep private.
Sitemap: This field provides the URL of the website’s XML sitemap, which is a valuable resource for crawlers. By including the sitemap in the robots.txt file, website owners can help search engines discover and crawl the most important pages on their site more efficiently, ensuring better indexing and visibility in search results.

Notable Omissions:

While not explicitly stated in the updated documentation, this clarification strongly implies that Google does not support several commonly used directives, including “crawl-delay.” Although some other search engines may still recognise and apply these directives, Google’s approach emphasises its preference for a streamlined set of guidelines, making it crucial for webmasters to adhere strictly to the supported fields outlined in the documentation.

Additionally, it’s worth noting that Google is in the process of phasing out support for the ‘noarchive’ directive. This change could significantly impact how website owners manage their content, as it affects the ability to control whether cached versions of their pages are displayed in search results. With this shift, site owners should be proactive in understanding alternative methods for managing their content visibility in search engines, ensuring they align with the latest practices while maintaining their desired level of control over how their sites are indexed and presented to users.

Looking Ahead:

This update serves as a reminder for website owners and developers to keep up with the latest official guidelines and best practices regarding robots.txt files. It underscores the importance of using only the features that are documented, rather than making assumptions about the support of any undocumented directives.

For more detailed information on how to effectively implement robots.txt files and adhere to best practices, it is advisable to consult Google’s official Search Central documentation. This resource provides comprehensive guidance that can help ensure that your website is optimised for search engines while avoiding common pitfalls associated with unsupported directives.