“ It ’ s important to disallow sections that don ’ t contribute to SEO , like affiliate redirect URLs , while ensuring that affiliate product pages and articles remain crawlable ”
igbaffiliate . com
TRAFFIC
MASTERING ROBOTS . TXT FOR SEO AND AI
Correctly configuring the robots . txt file for affiliate website structures and marketing strategies can significantly boost search engine presence . However , getting this wrong as AI large language models become integral to search algorithms could lead to missed opportunities . Technical SEO authority Fili Wiese writes on mastering this delicate balancing act
“ It ’ s important to disallow sections that don ’ t contribute to SEO , like affiliate redirect URLs , while ensuring that affiliate product pages and articles remain crawlable ”
I n the rapidly evolving digital marketplace , technical SEO remains crucial for affiliate marketers . An often-overlooked key SEO tool is the robots . txt file . This plain text file , when optimised , can significantly improve search engine interaction with your affiliate website .
In a time when the news is dominated by artificial intelligence developments , especially large language models like GPT-4 ( OpenAI ), Llama2 ( Meta ) and Bard / Gemini ( Google ), proper use of robots . txt is becoming increasingly more important . Search engines continue to evolve and reshape the digital landscape . Optimising your robots . txt file is therefore essential for your affiliate website ’ s content effective indexation and visibility in Google .
WHAT IS ROBOTS . TXT ?
The robots . txt file , nested at the root of a website , guides search engine crawlers and other bots , informing on which parts of a website to access or avoid . Its main function is to manage bot traffic to prevent server overload . It also plays a crucial role in SEO by managing content visibility . Proper configuration ensures only relevant , high-quality content is indexed , boosting a website ’ s search engine presence .
However , robots . txt is often misunderstood . Website owners have used robots . txt to block landing pages from being shown in the search results , not realising that by blocking search engine crawlers using robots . txt they may accomplish the exact opposite . And that these landing pages are shown in the search results . This happens because search engines can ’ t crawl the page and find the meta noindex instruction . Instead they see the page exists due to either internal or external linking and may still show the URL as a search result ( see Fig 1 ).
Landing pages blocked in the robots . txt file can and often are indexed , with poor snippet representation .
26 • ISSUE 94 • iGB AFFILIATE LONDON 2024