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        4. Robots.txt & Disallow: /*? Question!

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        Robots.txt & Disallow: /*? Question!

        Intermediate & Advanced SEO
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        • vetofunk
          vetofunk last edited by

          Hi,

          I have a site where they have:

          Disallow: /*?

          Problem is we need the following indexed:

          ?utm_source=google_shopping

          What would the best solution be? I have read:

          User-agent: *
          Allow: ?utm_source=google_shopping
          Disallow: /*?

          Any ideas?

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • BabaBha0173
            BabaBha0173 last edited by

            User-agent: * Disallow: /cgi-bin/ Disallow: /wp-admin/ Disallow: /archives/ Disallow: /? Allow: /comments/feed/ Disallow: /refer/ Disallow: /index.php Disallow: /wp-content/plugins/ Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php User-agent: Mediapartners-Google* Allow: / User-agent: Googlebot-Image Allow: /wp-content/uploads/ User-agent: Adsbot-Google Allow: / User-agent: Googlebot-Mobile Allow: / Sitemap: https://site.com/sitemap_index.xml

            use this it will help you and your problem will solve

            Regards

            Chotapao

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • Hoslaa
              Hoslaa @SAjad687 last edited by

              User-agent: * Disallow: /cgi-bin/ Disallow: /wp-admin/ Disallow: /archives/ Disallow: /? Allow: /comments/feed/ Disallow: /refer/ Disallow: /index.php Disallow: /wp-content/plugins/ Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php User-agent: Mediapartners-Google* Allow: / User-agent: Googlebot-Image Allow: /wp-content/uploads/ User-agent: Adsbot-Google Allow: / User-agent: Googlebot-Mobile Allow: / Sitemap: https://site.com/sitemap_index.xml

              this will work ??
              Regards
              Sajad

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • SAjad687
                SAjad687 last edited by

                User-agent: *
                Disallow: /cgi-bin/
                Disallow: /wp-admin/
                Disallow: /archives/
                Disallow: /*?*
                Allow: /comments/feed/
                Disallow: /refer/
                Disallow: /index.php
                Disallow: /wp-content/plugins/
                Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php
                
                User-agent: Mediapartners-Google*
                Allow: /
                
                User-agent: Googlebot-Image
                Allow: /wp-content/uploads/
                
                User-agent: Adsbot-Google
                Allow: /
                
                User-agent: Googlebot-Mobile
                Allow: /
                
                Sitemap: https://site.com/sitemap_index.xml
                
                use this it will help you
                
                Regards
                [Saad](https://clicktestworld.com/)
                
                Hoslaa 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • NickSamuel
                  NickSamuel last edited by

                  Hi Jeff,

                  Robots.txt tester as per the above link is definitely worth playing with and is the easiest route to achieving what you want.

                  Another reactive way of managing this is in some cases is to simply see the range of parameters Google has naturally crawled within Search Console.

                  You can see this in the old search console for now. So login and go to Crawl --> URL Parameters.

                  If Googlebot has encountered any ?=params it will list them. You'll then have an option how to manage them or exclude them from the index.

                  It can be a decent way of cleaning up a site with lot's of indexed pages (1,000+), although please be sure to read this documentation before using it: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6080548?hl=en

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • effectdigital
                    effectdigital last edited by

                    With this kind of thing, it's really better to pick the specific parameters (or parameter combinations) which you'd like to exclude, e.g:

                    User-agent: *
                    
                    

                    Disallow: /shop/product/&size=*

                    Disallow: */shop/product/*?size=* 
                    
                    

                    Disallow: /stockists?product=*

                    ^ I just took the above from a robots.txt file which I have been working on, as these particular pages don't have 'pretty' URLs with unique content on. Very soon now that will change and the blocks will be lifted

                    If you are really 100% sure that there's only one param which you want to let through, then you'd go with:

                    User-agent: *
                    
                    

                    Disallow: /?

                    Allow: /?utm_source=google_shopping

                    Allow: /*&utm_source=google_shopping*
                    

                    (or something pretty similar to that!)

                    Before you set anything live, get down a list of URLs which represent the blocks (and allows) which you want to achieve. Test it all with the Robots.txt tester (in Search Console) before you set anything live!

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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