How to Use Robots.txt?
0Here's How to Use Robots.txt on your site.
i. You can access a website's robots.txt file by typing the following into your web browser:
```
https://www.example.com/robots.txt
```
Where `www.example.com` is the domain name of the website you want to access the robots.txt file for.
For example, to access the robots.txt file for Google, you would type the following into your web browser:
```
https://www.google.com/robots.txt
```
If the website has a robots.txt file, it will be displayed in your web browser. If the website does not have a robots.txt file, you will see a message that says "The requested URL /robots.txt was not found on this server."
The robots.txt file is a text file that tells search engine crawlers which pages on a website they can and cannot crawl. By default, search engine crawlers are allowed to crawl all pages on a website. However, a website owner can use the robots.txt file to prevent search engine crawlers from crawling certain pages.
For example, a website owner might use the robots.txt file to prevent search engine crawlers from crawling pages that are under construction or pages that contain sensitive information.
The robots.txt file is a powerful tool that can be used to control how search engine crawlers interact with a website. However, it is important to note that the robots.txt file is not a security measure. It cannot prevent someone from accessing a page on a website if they know the URL of the page.
If you are a website owner, you should consider using the robots.txt file to control how search engine crawlers interact with your website. By doing so, you can help to improve the performance of your website and protect your sensitive information.
ii. Robots.txt is not obsolete. It is still a valuable tool for website owners who want to control how search engine crawlers interact with their websites. However, it is important to note that robots.txt is not a security measure. It cannot prevent someone from accessing a page on a website if they know the URL of the page.
Here are some of the reasons why robots.txt is still a valuable tool:
* **It can be used to prevent search engine crawlers from crawling pages that are under construction or that contain sensitive information.** This can help to improve the performance of your website by preventing search engine crawlers from wasting time crawling pages that are not yet ready for public viewing. It can also help to protect your sensitive information from being indexed by search engines.
* **It can be used to prevent search engine crawlers from crawling pages that you do not want to be indexed.** This can be useful for pages that are not relevant to your website's main content or that you do not want to appear in search results.
* **It can be used to tell search engine crawlers about your website's sitemap.** A sitemap is a file that tells search engine crawlers about all of the pages on your website. By including a sitemap directive in your robots.txt file, you can help search engine crawlers find all of the pages on your website more quickly.
If you are a website owner, you should consider using the robots.txt file to control how search engine crawlers interact with your website. By doing so, you can help to improve the performance of your website and protect your sensitive information.
iii. To read robots.txt for web scraping, you can follow these steps:
1. **Find the robots.txt file.** The robots.txt file is located at the root of the website's domain. For example, the robots.txt file for Google is located at `https://www.google.com/robots.txt`.
2. **Open the robots.txt file.** You can open the robots.txt file in a text editor or a web browser.
3. **Read the robots.txt file.** The robots.txt file is divided into two sections: user-agent directives and disallow directives.
4. **Follow the rules in the robots.txt file.** If the robots.txt file contains a disallow directive for your user-agent, you must not crawl the pages that are listed in the disallow directive.
Here is an example of a robots.txt file:
```
User-agent: *
Disallow: /under-construction/
```
This robots.txt file tells all search engine crawlers to not crawl the `/under-construction/` directory.
If you are a web scraper, you should always check the robots.txt file before you start crawling a website. By following the rules in the robots.txt file, you can help to ensure that you are not scraping pages that you are not supposed to scrape.
Here are some additional tips for reading robots.txt files:
* **Use a text editor or a web browser to open the robots.txt file.** This will make it easier to read and understand the file.
* **Look for user-agent directives.** These directives tell you which search engine crawlers the rules in the file apply to.
* **Look for disallow directives.**
* **Follow the rules in the robots.txt file.**
Learn more@ https://www.youtube.com/c/ITGuides/search?query=Robots.