Smart Robots.txt Generator

Create SEO-friendly robots.txt files instantly with live preview, visual rule building, AI bot controls, sitemap support, and real-time SEO validation.

SEO FriendlyLive PreviewBot ManagementSitemap SupportSyntax ValidationAI Bot Blocking

About this tool

A professional robots.txt generator with a visual rule builder, live preview, and real-time SEO validation. Choose from 8 website presets (Blog, WordPress, SaaS, eCommerce, Next.js and more) or build custom rules from scratch using the interactive rule editor.

The tool includes dedicated controls for blocking spam crawlers (SemrushBot, AhrefsBot, DotBot) and AI training bots (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google Extended). An SEO Health Score evaluates your configuration and flags dangerous rules before you deploy. Everything runs in your browser — your website data never leaves your device.

How to use

1

Choose a preset

Select a website type — Blog, WordPress, SaaS, eCommerce, Next.js or more — to auto-populate common crawl rules. Or start with Custom.

2

Edit crawl rules

Add, remove, or modify Allow and Disallow rules in the visual rule builder. Set the User-Agent for each rule — use * for all bots or target specific crawlers.

3

Configure bots & AI

Toggle spam bots to block (SemrushBot, AhrefsBot, MJ12bot) and control which AI training crawlers can access your content (GPTBot, ClaudeBot).

4

Add your sitemap & deploy

Enable the sitemap toggle and enter your sitemap URL. Check the SEO Health Score and Validation panel, then copy or download your robots.txt file.

Robots.txt SEO best practices

Always include a Sitemap

The Sitemap directive tells all search engines where to find your XML sitemap, accelerating content discovery without manual submission to each engine.

Block private paths, not pages

Use Disallow for structural paths like /admin/, /api/, /cart/ — not individual product or blog pages, which should be indexable for SEO.

Never Disallow: / globally

A Disallow: / under User-agent: * blocks every bot from crawling everything. This will deindex your entire website from Google and Bing.

Consider blocking AI bots

GPTBot, ClaudeBot and similar crawlers collect training data, not search rankings. Blocking them has zero impact on SEO but protects your content.

Use Crawl-delay carefully

Crawl-delay helps overloaded servers but Googlebot ignores it. For Google, manage crawl rate directly in Google Search Console Settings.

Test before deploying

Use Google Search Console's robots.txt tester to verify your rules before deploying. An error in robots.txt can accidentally block search engine indexing.

How it works

Visual Rule Builder

Each rule is stored as a structured object with a user-agent, type (Allow/Disallow), and path. Rules are grouped by user-agent and serialised into the standard robots.txt format in real time.

Live Validation Engine

The validator runs on every state change, checking for dangerous patterns (global Disallow: /), missing sitemaps, invalid path formats, and Googlebot-blocking rules.

SEO Health Scoring

The score evaluates five key factors: sitemap presence, Googlebot accessibility, global Allow rule, private path blocking, and absence of dangerous global blocks — up to 100 points total.

100% Client-Side

All generation, validation, and scoring happens in JavaScript in your browser. Nothing is sent to any server. Copy or download the output directly to deploy to your website.

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Frequently asked questions

Quick answers about this free online tool.

robots.txt is a text file placed in your website's root directory that tells search engine crawlers which pages or directories they are allowed or not allowed to crawl and index. It's part of the Robots Exclusion Protocol and is the first file most bots check when visiting a website.

Yes — a Disallow: / rule for Googlebot will prevent Google from crawling your site, but it does not guarantee removal from search results. Pages that are already indexed or linked from other sites may still appear. To fully deindex a page, use the noindex meta tag or the Google Search Console URL removal tool.

Yes — it's strongly recommended. Adding a Sitemap directive in robots.txt helps all search engines discover your sitemap automatically without needing to submit it manually to each search engine. It looks like: Sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml

GPTBot is OpenAI's web crawler used to collect training data for AI models like ChatGPT. Blocking it (User-agent: GPTBot / Disallow: /) prevents your content from being used as AI training data. Whether to block it is a personal or business decision — blocking GPTBot has no negative impact on your Google search rankings.

You can test your robots.txt using Google Search Console's robots.txt Tester tool. Navigate to Search Console → Settings → robots.txt tester. You can also view your live robots.txt by visiting https://yourdomain.com/robots.txt in a browser. The preview in this tool shows exactly what the final file will contain.

Yes, indirectly. A well-configured robots.txt prevents crawlers from wasting budget on unimportant pages (admin, cart, API) so they spend more time on your valuable content. It also reduces server load from unwanted bot traffic. However, it's not a ranking factor itself — the impact comes from better crawl budget allocation.

If robots.txt is missing, search engines will crawl your entire website by default, which is often fine for small sites. However, you may have bots crawling admin pages, APIs, or duplicate content, which wastes crawl budget. It's always best practice to have an explicit robots.txt even if it just contains User-agent: * / Allow: /

Crawl-delay sets a minimum number of seconds between bot requests. It's useful if heavy crawler traffic is slowing down your server. However, Googlebot ignores Crawl-delay — to control Google's crawl rate, use Google Search Console instead. Crawl-delay is respected by Bing, Yandex, and some other crawlers.