“ Common Crawl data often is used for the training of large language models . Opting out requires covering CCBot in the robots . txt file ” or affiliate landing pages , over less critical areas like administrative pages or affiliate redirects . This prioritisation is crucial in SEO , as it helps efficiently utilise the crawl budget that search engines allocate to each website and prevents search engine crawlers from getting stuck in infinite loops . Moreover , incorrect use can cause significant SEO issues , like accidentally blocking important pages from search engines .
It is also important to note that the robots . txt file offers neither privacy nor security . It ’ s more of a request than a hard rule . Compliant search engines honour these requests , but it ’ s not a safeguard against all rogue bots or crawlers . But what is compliant ? Until 2022 there was not even an official protocol , just an official best practices document dating back to 1994 . In 2019 , Google published a draft for a new Robots Exclusion Protocol which was accepted in 2022 . Still even now , adhering to robots . txt directives is neither mandatory nor legally binding . In the end , it is up to each bot to either be a “ good ” bot , respecting robots . txt or a “ bad ” bot ignoring robots . txt . If you want to verify if a search engine crawler is valid , you can check the IP address at SEOapi . com .
ROBOTS . TXT IN TECHNICAL SEO
For affiliate marketers , robots . txt is strategic . Proper use ensures search
Fig 1 : Landing pages blocked in the robots . txt file can and often are indexed , with poor snippet representation
engines prioritise crawling and indexing valuable pages , like product reviews
“ Common Crawl data often is used for the training of large language models . Opting out requires covering CCBot in the robots . txt file ” or affiliate landing pages , over less critical areas like administrative pages or affiliate redirects . This prioritisation is crucial in SEO , as it helps efficiently utilise the crawl budget that search engines allocate to each website and prevents search engine crawlers from getting stuck in infinite loops . Moreover , incorrect use can cause significant SEO issues , like accidentally blocking important pages from search engines .
Configuring robots . txt is a delicate
iGB AFFILIATE LONDON 2024 • ISSUE 94 • 27