Intermediate Time: 12 min
Step 3 of 8
robots.txt and access control
robots.txt expresses crawler preferences, but it does not replace network-level access control. Review how groups and path precedence work, then compare those rules with each crawler’s documented behavior before deciding, implementing, and monitoring what your site should allow or disallow in practice.
Core reading
- robots.txt Wiki
- Google-Extended Wiki
Self-check
- How do you write a robots.txt rule that allows only specific AI bots?
- What's the precedence between allow and disallow when they conflict?
- Which AI bots actually honor robots.txt, and which routinely ignore it?