Create Robots.txt: A Simple Guide for Marketing Teams

To create a robots.txt file, you only need a simple text editor. You specify which crawlers (User-agent:) may not visit which parts of your website (Disallow:). Then upload the file to the root directory of your domain. This way you control the crawl budget and speed up indexing of important campaign pages.

TL;DR: What you can do right away

• Action: Create a robots.txt file to exclude irrelevant areas (e.g. internal search, admin logins) from crawling.
• Result: You direct Google's crawl budget to your important landing pages and blog articles.
• Action: Add the path to your XML sitemap at the end of the robots.txt file.
• Result: New content is found and indexed faster, shortening the time-to-market of your campaigns.
• Action: Use the template in this article and validate the file with the Google robots.txt tester.

Problem → Desired Result

Marketing teams continuously create new content such as campaign landing pages or blog posts. Often it takes days or weeks for them to appear in Google search results. The reason: search engine crawlers waste their limited budget on unimportant pages of your website. This blocks quick wins and delays campaign performance. By precisely controlling the crawlers with a simple robots.txt file, you ensure new content is prioritized and indexed faster. The result is higher visibility in a shorter time.

What is a robots.txt file and why is it important for Marketing Teams?

Think of the robots.txt as a digital guide for search engine crawlers. It is a simple text file located in the root of your domain (e.g. https://yourdomain.de/robots.txt). Your job is to give bots like Googlebot clear instructions about which areas of your site they may visit and which are off-limits.

This control is an important lever for the technical SEO of your site. Without clear rules, crawlers waste valuable time (the "Crawl Budget") on irrelevant pages such as internal search results, shopping carts, or admin areas. By excluding these areas, you direct attention to the content that should rank. New campaigns become visible faster.

The standard was introduced in 1994 and established by Google as an Internet standard (RFC 9309) in 2022. More on history and standardization you can find directly at Google Developers.

One important point: The robots.txt is no longer purely an IT topic. It is a strategic marketing tool. Modern systems like JET-CMS often allow marketing teams to manage such technical aspects themselves. This speeds up the publication of new pages.

Step-by-step guide: create a robots.txt file

Creating a robots.txt file is straightforward and does not require deep programming knowledge. Your team can implement these steps immediately.

1. Create the text file: Open a simple text editor (e.g. Notepad or TextEdit) and create a new, empty file. Save it with the exact name robots.txt.
2. Define User-agent: Start with the directive User-agent: *. The asterisk * is a wildcard meaning the following rules apply to all search engine bots.
3. Block directories (Disallow): Add a Disallow: line for every area that should not be crawled. Be sure to block admin areas and internal search results pages to save Crawl Budget.
4. Exceptions (Allow): If you want to allow a subdirectory within a blocked area, use the Allow directive. This is useful to keep access to important images or scripts.
5. Add Sitemap: At the end of the file, add the Sitemap: directive followed by the full URL of your XML sitemap. This helps search engines find all important pages quickly.
6. Upload the file: Upload the robots.txt file to the root directory of your website. It should be accessible at https://your-domain.de/robots.txt.
7. Validate: Check your file with the Google Search Console robots.txt tester. This ensures there are no syntax errors and that important pages are not blocked.

Practical example: Rescue a marketing campaign

An e-commerce company launched a campaign with dozens of new product pages. Each page was reachable via countless filter URLs, leading to a flood of irrelevant links.

• Before: The robots.txt was empty. Google wasted ~70% of the Crawl Budget on filter URLs. The important new product pages were not indexed for weeks, and the campaign remained invisible.
• Action: We added a single rule: Disallow: /*?filter=. This simple instruction prevented crawling of all filtered pages.
• After: Within 4 weeks, the indexing rate of campaign pages increased by 45%. Organic visibility of the campaign rose by 15% as Google could focus its resources on relevant content.

Checklist & template for your robots.txt

Use this proven template as a starting point. You can copy the code directly and customize it for your site.

# START ROBOTS.TXT TEMPLATE

User-agent: *
# General directories to exclude that are irrelevant for Google
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /wp-admin/

# Block internal search results pages to avoid duplicate content
Disallow: /?s=
Disallow: /search/

# Explicitly allow important resources for correct page rendering
Allow: /wp-includes/js/
Allow: /wp-includes/css/

# Indicate the path to the XML sitemap to speed up indexing
Sitemap: https://www.your-domain.de/sitemap.xml

# END ROBOTS.TXT TEMPLATE

Final checklist before going live:

• File name is exactly robots.txt (lowercase).
• File is placed in the root directory (e.g. yourdomain.de/robots.txt).
• The sitemap URL is correct and reachable.
• No important content (e.g. /blog/) is accidentally blocked.
• The syntax is validated in the Google robots.txt tester.

Next step: Share this template and checklist with your Webmaster. Who/What: Marketing Lead / Web Developer. When: End of this week.

KPIs & measuring success

Check the success of your adjustments in the Google Search Console.

• Crawl statistics: Monitor the Crawling Statistics report. The number of crawl requests for blocked URLs should decrease, while it remains the same or increases for important content.
• Indexing speed: Measure the time from publishing a new page to its indexing. This value should decrease.
• Coverage report: Under "Blocklisted by robots.txt" the count of pages should align with your Disallow rules.

Common pitfalls & quick fixes

• Problem: The entire site is blocked (Disallow: /). Fix: Remove this line immediately. Often a remnant from a site relaunch.
• Problem: Important CSS or JS files are blocked. Fix: Explicitly allow key resource folders with Allow: so Google can render your page correctly.
• Problem: The file is named robot.txt or is located in a subfolder. Fix: Rename to robots.txt and move to the root directory.
• Problem: Sensitive data should be protected. Fix: Do not rely solely on robots.txt. Protect sensitive directories server-side as well. The robots.txt is a guideline, not a security measure.
• DACH/DSGVO note: Use Disallow to block directories with potential user data (e.g. upload folders). This does not replace server-side security measures per DSGVO.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

How do I block a single page? Provide the exact path after the Disallow: directive. Example: Disallow: /thank-you-for-your-request.html.

Does robots.txt block indexing 100%? No. Disallow prevents crawling (reading), not necessarily indexing. If a blocked page receives external links, Google may still index it (albeit without description). To ensure indexing is blocked, use the noindex meta tag in the HTML of the page.

Can an empty robots.txt cause harm? Not directly, but it is a missed opportunity. Without rules, crawlers waste valuable budget on unimportant pages, which can slow the indexing of your new campaigns.

How often should I check the robots.txt? Check the file quarterly and after any major site update in Google Search Console to ensure everything works correctly.