SEO Set-up In Blogger Custom Robot.txt
When managing a Blogger (Blogspot) site, one of the most important tasks you can do for your SEO is configuring a custom robots.txt file. This file tells search engines which pages to crawl and which pages to avoid. By default, Blogger generates a basic robots.txt file for your blog, but to fully optimize your site's indexing and visibility, you can customize it further.
Here I'll show you how to add a custom robots.txt sitemap code to your Blogger blog, allowing you to better control which pages are crawled by search engines. Additionally, I will explain why it's important and how this tweak can enhance your SEO efforts.
Why You Need a Custom robots.txt in Blogger?
The robots.txt file is essential for search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo as it helps them understand how to index your website. With a custom robots.txt, you can at least gain the following:
Control Crawling: Tell search engines which pages they should or should not crawl.
Prioritize Pages: Ensure that your most important pages are indexed more frequently.
SEO Benefits: By guiding search engines on which pages to focus on, you can boost the SEO performance of your blog.
By default, Blogger doesn’t provide much customization for the robots.txt file, but you can easily add a custom one by following a few simple steps.
How to Add a Custom robots.txt Sitemap Code in Blogger.
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to add your custom robots.txt sitemap code:
Login to Your Blogger Account:
Go to your Blogger dashboard and select the blog you want to modify.
Navigate to Settings:
On the left side menu, click on Settings.
Find Crawlers and Indexing:
Under the Settings tab, locate the Crawlers and Indexing section. Here, you will find an option to Enable custom robots.txt.
Enable Custom robots.txt:
Turn this option on, allowing you to add your own custom robots.txt code.
Edit the robots.txt Code:
In the box provided, add the following custom code:
Copy the sitemap robot.txt below 👇
Explanation To Those tags:
User-agent: *: This means the rule applies to all search engines.
Disallow: /search: This prevents search engines from crawling search results pages (which typically don’t need to be indexed).
Disallow: /p/contact.html: This stops search engines from crawling your contact page (adjust as needed based on your site’s structure).
Sitemap: https://yourblogurl.com/sitemap.xml: This line tells search engines where your sitemap is located. Replace https://yourblogurl.com with your actual blog URL.
Save Your Changes: Once you’ve added the custom code, be sure to click Save Changes to apply your new robots.txt file.
Testing Your Custom robots.txt File
After saving the custom robots.txt file, you’ll want to test it to ensure that search engines are able to crawl your blog as intended. You can use the Google Search Console to check how Googlebot is interacting with your site. Here’s how:
Go to Google Search Console and log in.
Select your blog from the list of properties.
Navigate to the Crawl section and click on robots.txt Tester.
Enter your custom robots.txt code and click Test to ensure there are no issues.
The Benefits of a Custom robots.txt File
Better Control of Crawling: By customizing the robots.txt, you can block search engines from crawling pages that aren’t important, such as duplicate content, search results, and admin pages. This helps search engines focus on your most valuable pages.
Improved SEO: By guiding search engines to the right content through your robots.txt file, you can improve how your blog is indexed, resulting in better search rankings.
Faster Indexing: With the inclusion of your sitemap URL, search engines will be able to quickly find and index the pages you want to highlight.
Reduced Crawl Budget Wastage: Search engines have a limited crawl budget for each site, meaning they can only crawl a certain number of pages in a given time. By blocking unnecessary pages, you ensure that your crawl budget is spent on important pages.
Important Considerations
Avoid Blocking Important Pages: Be careful not to block important pages, like your homepage or key blog posts, from being crawled.
Test Frequently: After any changes to your robots.txt, make sure to test it to avoid accidental issues that could hinder your SEO efforts.
Conclusion
By adding a custom robots.txt file to your Blogger blog and including your sitemap, you’re taking an important step in improving your site’s SEO. It’s an easy yet powerful tweak that gives you more control over how search engines interact with your blog.
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