How to Set Up a Custom robots.txt File in Blogger (Step-by-Step SEO Guide)
How to Set Up a Custom robots.txt File in Blogger (Step-by-Step SEO Guide)
Want to improve your Blogger site's visibility on Google? Looking to control how search engines crawl your blog? One of the most overlooked SEO features is the robots.txt file — and customizing it can make a big difference.
In this guide, you'll learn:
- What the robots.txt file does
- Why you should customize it on Blogger
- How to set it up correctly
- Best practices and common mistakes to avoid
- How to test your file for errors
What Is a robots.txt File?
The robots.txt file is a simple text file that tells search engines which parts of your website they can or cannot crawl.
It's like a set of instructions for Googlebot (and other crawlers).
On Blogger, you can use a custom robots.txt file to guide search engines toward your most important content — and away from low-value pages like search results.
Why Customize robots.txt on Blogger?
By default, Blogger generates a basic robots.txt, but customizing it gives you more control.
Here's what you gain:
- Better indexing: Make sure your best content gets discovered.
- Crawl budget optimization: Prevent bots from wasting time on unnecessary pages.
- Avoid duplicate content: Stop crawlers from indexing tag, label, or search result pages.
- Improve user experience: Search visitors will land on higher-quality content.
How to Enable and Customize robots.txt in Blogger
Step 1: Open Your Blogger Settings
Go to Blogger and sign in.
Select your blog.
On the left sidebar, click Settings.
Step 2: Enable Custom robots.txt
Scroll down to the Crawlers and indexing section.
Turn on Enable custom robots.txt.
Click Custom robots.txt and paste the following code:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /search
Allow: /
Sitemap: https://yourblog.blogspot.com/sitemap.xml
> Important: Replace yourblog.blogspot.com with your actual blog URL.
What This Code Means:
User-agent: *: Applies to all bots.
Disallow: /search: Prevents bots from crawling search result pages.
Allow: /: Lets bots access all other content.
Sitemap: Helps search engines discover and index your pages.
Step 3: Save Your Settings
Click Save to apply your new robots.txt file.
Optional: Enable Custom Robots Header Tags
For more control over how your pages appear in search results, enable the Custom robots header tags:
Homepage: all and noodp
Archive and search pages: noindex and noodp
Posts and pages: all and noodp
These settings:
Allow indexing of your actual posts.
Prevent indexing of archive/search pages.
Avoid using outdated metadata from directories like DMOZ (ODP).
How to Test Your robots.txt File
After saving, test your file to make sure it’s working:
1. Visit:
https://yourblog.blogspot.com/robots.txt
(Replace with your actual blog address.)
2. Use Google Search Console:
Log in to Google Search Console
Choose your blog.
Use the “robots.txt tester” tool to check for errors.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Blocking important pages like your homepage or blog posts.
- Missing your sitemap URL, which helps crawlers find your content.
- Syntax errors: Simple typos can break the file.
Pro SEO Tips for Blogger
- Use clear, descriptive post titles with target keywords.
- Internally link between related blog posts.
- Avoid duplicate content from labels and search pages.
- Use responsive templates for mobile SEO.
- Monitor indexing in Google Search Console regularly.
Final Thoughts
A properly configured robots.txt file can boost your Blogger site's SEO, improve how Google crawls your pages, and help you control what gets indexed. It’s a small change — with big impact.
Need help applying this to your blog? Let me know and I’ll guide you through it step-by-step.
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