Shopify Robots.txt: Essential Information

 Do you currently operate a web-based business using the Shopify platform? If so, I assume you must strive every day to improve your store and enhance the customer experience. The Shopify Robots.txt file is an excellent tool for this purpose. It aims to access and organize content and deliver it to users.

If you are in need, read this article in its entirety. I will give you everything about Shopify Robots.txt. Let's see!

Shopify Robots.txt: An Overview

SEO is significantly impacted by the Shopify Robots.txt file (SEO). This file greatly assists merchants in controlling search robots.

What is Robots.txt File?

Webmasters use the Robots.txt file to instruct web robots (typically search engines) which pages on their site to crawl and which not to crawl. The robots.txt file is part of the robots exclusion protocol (REP), a collection of web standards. These specifications describe how robots crawl the web, process and index content, and deliver it to users. The REP also includes directives, such as meta robots, page-, subdirectory-, and site-wide instructions for how search engines should handle links, such as "follow" and "nofollow."

In practice, robots.txt files indicate whether or not certain user agents can crawl the web. These crawl directions are specified by "disallowing" or "allowing" user agent behavior.

The Robots.txt file is located in the root directory of the primary domain name of your Shopify store. As a result, it is the first document that spiders and crawlers access upon entering your website. However, the file does not control the crawling process. You can include a link to your sitemap, which provides search engine spiders with an overview of all of your domain's current URLs.

How then can a robots.txt file be generated? Don't fret. If you run an online store on the Shopify platform, the robots.txt file will be generated automatically.

Why is Robots.txt File Necessary?

The purpose of Robot.txt files is to manage spider access to specific areas of a website. Although it is risky to unintentionally prevent Googlebot from crawling your entire site, robots.txt files can be useful in certain circumstances:

• Avoiding same content from appearing in SERPs (notice that meta robots are often a better option for this)
• Maintaining entire sections of a website private
• Keeping internal search results pages from appearing on a public SERP
• Defining the location of sitemaps
• Avoiding search engines from indexing certain files on your sites such as photos and PDFs
• Designating a crawl delay to prevent your servers from being overloaded when spiders load a number of pieces of content at the same time

Where Can You Find Shopify Robots.txt?

The robots.txt file is stored at the root directory of your Shopify store’s domain name.

Can You Edit Shopify Robots.txt File?

Sadly, you can't. However, you should note that the content of the robots.txt file in your store's directory blocks search engines. For example, the shopping cart page is blocked from search engines because you want customers to visit your website first.

How to Hide a Page on Your Shopify Store from Search Engine

Customize the section of your store's theme.liquid layout file in order to conceal a page that is not included in your robots.txt file. You must also enter code to noindex specific pages.

Step 1. Enter Themes section

In your Shopify admin, go to Online Store and then Themes.

Step 2. Edit code

Choose the theme you want to edit, click on Actions and then click Edit code.

Step 3. Choose the theme.liquid layout file

Click the theme.liquid button.

Step 4. Enter code to exclude the search template

Type the following code in the section.

{% if template contains 'search' %}
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">
{% endif %}

Step 5. Enter code to exclude a specific code

Write the following code in the section.

{% if handle contains 'page-handle-you-want-to-exclude' %}
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">
{% endif %}

Remember that you replace page-handle-you-want-to-exclude with the exact page handle.

Step 6. Save

Click on Save button.

For more detailed instructions, please check out at the article How to Hide a Page From Search Engines on Shopify.

You have learned more about Shopify Robots.txt. Thank you for reading