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    4. Disallow URLs ENDING with certain values in robots.txt?

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    Disallow URLs ENDING with certain values in robots.txt?

    Intermediate & Advanced SEO
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    • jmorehouse
      jmorehouse last edited by

      Is there any way to disallow URLs ending in a certain value? For example, if I have the following product page URL: http://website.com/category/product1, and I want to disallow /category/product1/review, /category/product2/review, etc. without disallowing the product pages themselves, is there any shortcut to do this, or must I disallow each gallery page individually?

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • Andy.Drinkwater
        Andy.Drinkwater @jmorehouse last edited by

        Excellent stuff. Glad it helped 🙂

        -Andy

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • jmorehouse
          jmorehouse @Andy.Drinkwater last edited by

          Thanks, Andy! I just tested with Webmaster tool's tester, and it worked.

          Andy.Drinkwater 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • Andy.Drinkwater
            Andy.Drinkwater last edited by

            So you just want to disallow the /review/ element?

            *Disallow: /review/

            I am pretty sure the wildcard will work.

            I would use the Robots.txt tester in Webmaster tools to try it out first before committing to any changes. This will tell you if it works and if so, if it's blocked successfully.

            You then try the URL without the /review/ element on and make sure it passes.

            -Andy

            jmorehouse 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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