{"id":416,"date":"2012-03-05T14:23:52","date_gmt":"2012-03-05T14:23:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins-wp\/wp-robots-txt\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T20:15:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T20:15:19","slug":"wp-robots-txt","status":"publish","type":"plugin","link":"https:\/\/sk.wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-robots-txt\/","author":14632437,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"version":"1.3.6","stable_tag":"1.3.6","tested":"7.1.1","requires":"5.3.0","requires_php":"7.0","requires_plugins":null,"header_name":"WP Robots Txt","header_author":"George Pattichis","header_description":"","assets_banners_color":"137dad","last_updated":"2026-08-24 20:15:19","external_support_url":"","external_repository_url":"","donate_link":"https:\/\/profiles.wordpress.org\/pattihis\/","header_plugin_uri":"https:\/\/github.com\/pattihis\/wp-robots.txt","header_author_uri":"https:\/\/profiles.wordpress.org\/pattihis\/","rating":5,"author_block_rating":0,"active_installs":40000,"downloads":594532,"num_ratings":21,"support_threads":0,"support_threads_resolved":0,"author_block_count":0,"sections":["description","installation","faq","changelog"],"tags":{"1.0":{"tag":"1.0","author":"chrisguitarguy","date":"2012-03-05 14:30:11"},"1.1":{"tag":"1.1","author":"chrisguitarguy","date":"2013-08-10 03:53:14"},"1.2":{"tag":"1.2","author":"pattihis","date":"2022-10-28 19:07:40"},"1.3":{"tag":"1.3","author":"pattihis","date":"2023-09-29 16:11:31"},"1.3.1":{"tag":"1.3.1","author":"pattihis","date":"2023-12-26 16:01:46"},"1.3.2":{"tag":"1.3.2","author":"pattihis","date":"2024-01-30 08:48:15"},"1.3.3":{"tag":"1.3.3","author":"pattihis","date":"2024-03-15 07:45:52"},"1.3.4":{"tag":"1.3.4","author":"pattihis","date":"2024-11-30 16:56:39"},"1.3.5":{"tag":"1.3.5","author":"pattihis","date":"2025-06-29 19:37:13"},"1.3.6":{"tag":"1.3.6","author":"pattihis","date":"2026-08-24 20:15:19"}},"upgrade_notice":{"1.3.6":"<ul>\n<li>Security and compatibility release for WordPress 7.1. 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This is great, but how do you easily change the content?<\/p>\n\n<p>Enter <strong>WP Robots Txt<\/strong>, a plugin that adds an additional field to the \"Reading\" admin page where you can do just that. No manual coding or file editing required!<\/p>\n\n<p>Simply visit https:\/\/your-site.com\/wp-admin\/options-reading.php and you can control the contents of your https:\/\/your-site.com\/robots.txt<\/p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-robots-txt\/#developers\">Changelog<\/a><\/p>\n\n<!--section=installation-->\n<ol>\n<li>Download the plugin<\/li>\n<li>Unzip it<\/li>\n<li>Upload the unzipped folder to <code>wp-content\/plugins<\/code> directory<\/li>\n<li>Activate and enjoy!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n<p>Or you can simply install it through the admin area plugin installer.<\/p>\n\n<!--section=faq-->\n<dl>\n<dt id=\"i%20totally%20screwed%20up%20my%20%60robots.txt%60%20file.%20how%20can%20i%20restore%20the%20default%20version%3F\"><h3>I totally screwed up my `robots.txt` file. How can I restore the default version?<\/h3><\/dt>\n<dd><p>Delete all the content from the <em>Robots.txt Content<\/em> field and save the privacy options.<\/p><\/dd>\n<dt id=\"could%20i%20accidently%20block%20all%20search%20bots%20with%20this%3F\"><h3>Could I accidently block all search bots with this?<\/h3><\/dt>\n<dd><p>Yes.  Be careful! That said, <code>robots.txt<\/code> files are suggestions. They don't really <em>block<\/em> bots as much as they <em>suggest<\/em> that bots don't crawl portions of a site.  That's why the options on the Privacy Settings page say \"Ask search engines not to index this site.\"<\/p><\/dd>\n<dt id=\"does%20discouraging%20search%20engines%20change%20robots.txt%3F\"><h3>Does discouraging search engines change robots.txt?<\/h3><\/dt>\n<dd><p>No. Since WordPress 5.3 that setting adds a <code>noindex<\/code> meta tag. It does not add <code>Disallow: \/<\/code> to <code>robots.txt<\/code>. Your saved rules are still served. Add <code>Disallow: \/<\/code> yourself if you want crawlers to skip the site.<\/p><\/dd>\n<dt id=\"why%20is%20my%20edited%20robots.txt%20not%20used%3F\"><h3>Why is my edited robots.txt not used?<\/h3><\/dt>\n<dd><p>WordPress only serves the virtual <code>robots.txt<\/code> when there is no physical <code>robots.txt<\/code> file in the site root. Delete or rename that file to use this plugin.<\/p><\/dd>\n<dt id=\"where%20can%20i%20learn%20more%20about%20%60robots.txt%60%20files%3F\"><h3>Where can I learn more about `robots.txt` files?<\/h3><\/dt>\n<dd><p><a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/webmasters\/control-crawl-index\/docs\/robots_txt\">Here<\/a> is a general guide by Google and <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/support\/article\/search-engine-optimization\/\">here<\/a> is the WordPress SEO documentation.<\/p><\/dd>\n\n<\/dl>\n\n<!--section=changelog-->\n<h4>1.3.6<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Compatibility with WordPress 7.1<\/li>\n<li>Stop HTML-escaping robots.txt output (it is text\/plain; this broke URLs with <code>&amp;<\/code>)<\/li>\n<li>Store sanitized plain text instead of <code>esc_html()<\/code> in the option<\/li>\n<li>Decode legacy HTML entities from older saved content<\/li>\n<li>Fix default <code>Disallow<\/code>\/<code>Allow<\/code> paths on subdirectory installs (match core <code>admin_url()<\/code>)<\/li>\n<li>Guard sitemap defaults for WordPress 5.3\u20135.4 and when sitemaps are disabled<\/li>\n<li>Use <code>esc_url_raw()<\/code> for the default Sitemap line<\/li>\n<li>Warn when a physical robots.txt file will override this plugin<\/li>\n<li>Keep saved rules when search engines are discouraged (WordPress does not add <code>Disallow: \/<\/code>)<\/li>\n<li>Harden admin and plugin-row markup escaping<\/li>\n<li>Add <code>ABSPATH<\/code> guards on included files<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.3.5<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Compatibility with WordPress 6.8<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.3.4<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Compatibility with WordPress 6.7<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.3.3<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Add Line Break to allow appending more rules. Thanks @flberger<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.3.2<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Add translation template<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.3.1<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Compatibility with WordPress 6.4<\/li>\n<li>WP Coding Standards compliant<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.3<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Ensure Compatibility with WP v6.3<\/li>\n<li>Increase PHP minimum required version<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.2<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Update the default robots.txt content<\/li>\n<li>Include sitemap reference<\/li>\n<li>Resolve code warnings\/errors<\/li>\n<li>WP Coding Standards compliant<\/li>\n<li>Ensure Compatibility with WP v6<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.1<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Moved the settings field \"officially\" to the reading page<\/li>\n<li>General code clean up<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h4>1.0<\/h4>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Initial version<\/li>\n<\/ul>","raw_excerpt":"WP Robots Txt Allows you to edit the content of your robots.txt file.","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sk.wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/plugin\/416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sk.wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/plugin"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sk.wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/plugin"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sk.wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sk.wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-json\/wporg\/v1\/users\/pattihis"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sk.wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"plugin_section","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sk.wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/plugin_section?post=416"},{"taxonomy":"plugin_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sk.wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/plugin_tags?post=416"},{"taxonomy":"plugin_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sk.wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/plugin_category?post=416"},{"taxonomy":"plugin_contributors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sk.wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/plugin_contributors?post=416"},{"taxonomy":"plugin_business_model","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sk.wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/plugin_business_model?post=416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}