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        4. How to allow bots to crawl all but WP-content

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        How to allow bots to crawl all but WP-content

        Technical SEO
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        • Tom3_15
          Tom3_15 last edited by

          Hello,

          I would like my website to remain crawlable to bots, but to block my wp content and media. Does the following robots.txt work? I worry that the * user agent may conflict with the others.

          User-agent: *
          Disallow: /wp-admin/
          Disallow: /wp-includes/
          Disallow: /wp-content/

          User-agent: GoogleBot
          Allow: /

          User-agent: GoogleBot-Mobile
          Allow: /

          User-agent: GoogleBot-Image
          Allow: /

          User-agent: Bingbot
          Allow: /

          User-agent: Slurp
          Allow: /

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • Tom3_15
            Tom3_15 @GastonRiera last edited by

            Thank you for the help, Gaston!

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • GastonRiera
              Gaston Riera @Tom3_15 last edited by

              Yeap, with that you are allowing every file ending with that extension

              Tom3_15 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • Tom3_15
                Tom3_15 @Tom3_15 last edited by

                Can I do so with:

                Allow: *.jpg

                Allow: *.png

                GastonRiera 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • Tom3_15
                  Tom3_15 @GastonRiera last edited by

                  Thanks, Gaston. I should have been more clear about what I am looking to do. I currently am having an indexation issue. Somehow, pages are being automatically generated by WordPress.

                  These pages are often .txt files of information or code from plugins, all beginning with /wp-content/uploads/ in their URL. I have been manually removing them from the index and would like to now have them be uncrawlable.

                  Best

                  Tom3_15 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • GastonRiera
                    Gaston Riera @Tom3_15 last edited by

                    Oh god, my mistake!
                    Im deeply sorry, yes, this configuration will block images! that follow that folder structure!

                    I'll correct myself.
                    Thanks for pointing it out!

                    Tom3_15 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • Tom3_15
                      Tom3_15 @GastonRiera last edited by

                      Gaston,

                      Thanks for the fast reply! My images folder does follow that format, which is what makes me worrisome as we are blocking the wp-conent folder.

                      Thanks!

                      GastonRiera 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • GastonRiera
                        Gaston Riera @Tom3_15 last edited by

                        Hi Tom,

                        Yes, this config will allow images to be crawled,

                        No, this config will block images to be crawled,as long as your wordpress has the defalt folder for images: /wp-content/uploads/year/month/image-name.png

                        How to know, super easy, where your images are stored? Go to the web where you can find an image... Then right clic and then copy link address. With that link you will find that folder structure.

                        Hope it helps.
                        Best luck.
                        GR

                        Tom3_15 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • Tom3_15
                          Tom3_15 @GastonRiera last edited by

                          Hi Gaston,

                          I just wanted to follow up with you with one last question if possible. Would this allow my images and PDF's to be crawled & indexed still?

                          Thanks!

                          GastonRiera 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • Tom3_15
                            Tom3_15 @GastonRiera last edited by

                            Awesome. Thanks, Gaston!

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • GastonRiera
                              Gaston Riera @Tom3_15 last edited by

                              Yes it does.

                              As I said earlier. Copy and paste that code into the robot.txt tester in any of your search console and try with some name.css or testing.js just for testing.
                              Check the image i've attached.

                              Hope it helps.
                              Best luck
                              GR

                              btsycPz

                              Tom3_15 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 3
                              • Tom3_15
                                Tom3_15 @GastonRiera last edited by

                                Thank you for the response. I'm still a little uncertain, does the version you wrote allow the bots to crawl the css and js as well?

                                Best

                                GastonRiera 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • GastonRiera
                                  Gaston Riera last edited by

                                  Hi Tom!

                                  That Robots.txt config is pretty redundant.
                                  To acheive what you what, thy this:

                                  User-agent: * 
                                  Disallow: /wp-admin/ 
                                  Disallow: /wp-includes/
                                  Disallow: /wp-content/
                                  Allow: *.js
                                  Allow: *.css

                                  Just 3 things to note here:
                                  1- That User-agent:* and those disallows blocks for every bot to crawl whats in those folders.
                                  2- When blocking /wp-content/ you are also blocking the /themes/ folder and inside are the .js and .css files. Blocking those files cause to googlebot not being able to render correctly that page and see it different from what a normal user would see.
                                  3- Those Allow:/ dont prevent the disallow.

                                  To try that configuration, you can use the robots.txt tester in search console, just inder the Crawl menu.

                                  Remember that by default google considers that you are not blocking nothing. 
                                  More info here: The web robots.tat page

                                  Hope it helps.
                                  Best luck.
                                  GR

                                  Tom3_15 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 4
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