Written by Admin on 2025-05-06

A Guide to Downloading a WordPress Robots.txt File

If you own a WordPress website, you may have heard of the term "robots.txt". This is a file that contains instructions for search engine bots on which pages of your website to crawl and which ones to avoid. It is an important part of search engine optimization (SEO) as it can help your website rank better in search results.

In this guide, we will walk you through the steps to download your WordPress robots.txt file.

What is a robots.txt file?

A robots.txt file is a simple text file that sits in the root directory of your website. It contains rules for web crawlers on which pages to scan and index. This file is used by search engines like Google to know which pages of your website to crawl.

Why do you need a robots.txt file?

While it's not necessary for all websites to have a robots.txt file, it's highly recommended for sites with many pages. A robots.txt file helps search engine crawlers to prioritize which pages to index, making it more likely that your more important pages will be indexed over non-essential ones.

How to download your WordPress robots.txt file

Step 1: Login to your WordPress website and go to the dashboard.

Step 2: Click on "Tools" on the left-hand side of the screen, then click "File Manager".

Step 3: In the "File Manager" window, navigate to the root directory of your website. You can do this by clicking on "public_html", which is usually the root directory.

Step 4: Look for the "robots.txt" file. If you can't find it, that means you haven't created one yet.

Step 5: Once you've found the robots.txt file, click on it once to highlight it, then click on the "Download" button located on the top toolbar.

Step 6: Save the robots.txt file to your computer.

That's it! You have now successfully downloaded your WordPress robots.txt file.

How to edit your robots.txt file

If you want to change the instructions you have given to the search engines in your robots.txt file, you can do so by editing the file. However, be cautious when doing this as any errors or incorrect instructions could damage your website's SEO.

To edit your robots.txt file, simply open it in a text editor and make your desired changes. Save the file and re-upload it to your website's root directory.

Conclusion

A robots.txt file is a relatively simple but important tool for SEO. By following the steps we've outlined above, you can easily download and modify your WordPress robots.txt file to make sure search engines are indexing the most important pages of your website.