Definition: Robots.txt

The robots.txt file is a text file used by websites to communicate with web crawlers and other automated agents, such as search engine bots, about which pages or sections of the site should not be crawled or indexed. The robots.txt file is placed in the root directory of a website and contains specific instructions for web crawlers, such as which pages to ignore or avoid. This file is used to prevent search engines from indexing pages that are not relevant or that contain sensitive information. It is important to note that while the robots.txt file provides a way for websites to communicate with web crawlers, it is not a foolproof method of preventing indexing or crawling. Search engines and other automated agents may ignore the instructions in the robots.txt file if they choose to do so.