Learn to Protect Your Site by Communicating in the Language of Robots.txt

If you are a website owner, you know the reasoning behind that question. No, we are not talking about physical robots in general, but rather the language of robots. Anyone that is familiar with the famous Google robot – Googlebot, knows how important it can be to be able to understand the language of robots to help protect your website. Not everyone though, is at savvy in the language art of speaking robot.   

It can be intimidating to some website owners when thinking they have to learn to effectively use the language, but there are tools available to help the lesser robot savvy communicators. Most of us have probably employed the services of Googlebot to protect sections and parts of our websites that we don’t want invaded. Those that are familiar with using the robots.txt language can simply fire off a file to him and he will always deliver what we need. But if you are unsure of your abilities in the art of speaking robot, there is something that can help you.

There is a new Webmaster tool available that acts as a translator or robot.txt files. It helps you build the file to use, and all you have to do is enter the areas you do not want robots to crawl through. You can also make it very specific blocking only certain types of robots from certain types of files. After you use the generator tool, you can take it for a test drive by using the analysis tool. After you have seen that your test file is ready to go, you can simply save the new file on the root directory on your website and sit back.

When creating and using the robots files, you should consider the following two tips:
1.    Robot text files are not always supported on all search engines – Googlebot and some other robots can understand the files, but other robots may not be able to understand the generated files.
2.    Keep in mind that robot text files are only a method of asking that your site be protected from robots crawling. You simply generate the file, but to some robots who are not as scrupulous as others, they can choose to ignore the file and get in. Make sure you use the password protection option to protect what files you need blocked.

This can be a great tool for those who are not as confident in their robot language skills, and can create a safe haven for the files on your website you need protected from unsavory robots. It can substantially help you in your quest to protect your website and files within by helping you generate the file in the correct format to the robot. As always, there are options out there if you need further guidance, you can check out the help center for Webmaster tools or seek answers from a help group of Webmasters.