undefined
Skip to content
Moz logo Menu open Menu close
  • Products
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Pro Home
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Home
    • STAT
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Home
    • Compare SEO Products
    • Moz Data
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis
    • Keyword Explorer
    • Link Explorer
    • Competitive Research
    • MozBar
    • More Free SEO Tools
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO
    • SEO Learning Center
    • Moz Academy
    • SEO Q&A
    • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Agency Solutions
    • Enterprise Solutions
    • Small Business Solutions
    • Case Studies
    • The Moz Story
    • New Releases
  • Log in
  • Log out
  • Products
    • Moz Pro

      Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

    • Moz Local

      Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

    • STAT

      SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

    • Moz API

      Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

    • Compare SEO Products

      See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

    • Moz Data

      Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    Learn more
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis

      Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

    • Keyword Explorer

      Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

    • Link Explorer

      Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

    • Competitive Research

      Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

    • MozBar

      See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

    • More Free SEO Tools

      Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    Learn more
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO

      The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

    • SEO Learning Center

      Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

    • On-Demand Webinars

      Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

    • How-To Guides

      Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

    • Moz Academy

      Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

    • MozCon

      Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
    Moz API

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

    Find your plan
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Small Business Solutions

      Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

    • Agency Solutions

      Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

    • Enterprise Solutions

      Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

    • The Moz Story

      Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

    • Case Studies

      Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.

    • New Releases

      Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

    Surface actionable competitive intel
    New Feature

    Surface actionable competitive intel

    Learn More
  • Log in
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Dashboard
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Dashboard
    • Moz Academy
  • Avatar
    • Moz Home
    • Notifications
    • Account & Billing
    • Manage Users
    • Community Profile
    • My Q&A
    • My Videos
    • Log Out

The Moz Q&A Forum

  • Forum
  • Questions
  • Users
  • Ask the Community

Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

  1. Home
  2. SEO Tactics
  3. Technical SEO
  4. How to allow bots to crawl all but WP-content

Moz Q&A is closed.

After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

How to allow bots to crawl all but WP-content

Technical SEO
2
13
3.4k
Loading More Posts
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as question
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
  • Tom3_15
    Tom3_15 last edited by Sep 25, 2018, 2:42 PM

    Hello,

    I would like my website to remain crawlable to bots, but to block my wp content and media. Does the following robots.txt work? I worry that the * user agent may conflict with the others.

    User-agent: *
    Disallow: /wp-admin/
    Disallow: /wp-includes/
    Disallow: /wp-content/

    User-agent: GoogleBot
    Allow: /

    User-agent: GoogleBot-Mobile
    Allow: /

    User-agent: GoogleBot-Image
    Allow: /

    User-agent: Bingbot
    Allow: /

    User-agent: Slurp
    Allow: /

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • Tom3_15
      Tom3_15 @GastonRiera last edited by Oct 17, 2018, 5:19 PM Oct 17, 2018, 5:19 PM

      Thank you for the help, Gaston!

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • GastonRiera
        Gaston Riera @Tom3_15 last edited by Oct 17, 2018, 2:34 PM Oct 17, 2018, 2:34 PM

        Yeap, with that you are allowing every file ending with that extension

        Tom3_15 1 Reply Last reply Oct 17, 2018, 5:19 PM Reply Quote 0
        • Tom3_15
          Tom3_15 @Tom3_15 last edited by Oct 17, 2018, 12:00 PM Oct 17, 2018, 12:00 PM

          Can I do so with:

          Allow: *.jpg

          Allow: *.png

          GastonRiera 1 Reply Last reply Oct 17, 2018, 2:34 PM Reply Quote 0
          • Tom3_15
            Tom3_15 @GastonRiera last edited by Oct 16, 2018, 10:00 AM Oct 16, 2018, 9:59 AM

            Thanks, Gaston. I should have been more clear about what I am looking to do. I currently am having an indexation issue. Somehow, pages are being automatically generated by WordPress.

            These pages are often .txt files of information or code from plugins, all beginning with /wp-content/uploads/ in their URL. I have been manually removing them from the index and would like to now have them be uncrawlable.

            Best

            Tom3_15 1 Reply Last reply Oct 17, 2018, 12:00 PM Reply Quote 0
            • GastonRiera
              Gaston Riera @Tom3_15 last edited by Oct 15, 2018, 4:46 PM Oct 15, 2018, 4:46 PM

              Oh god, my mistake!
              Im deeply sorry, yes, this configuration will block images! that follow that folder structure!

              I'll correct myself.
              Thanks for pointing it out!

              Tom3_15 1 Reply Last reply Oct 16, 2018, 9:59 AM Reply Quote 0
              • Tom3_15
                Tom3_15 @GastonRiera last edited by Oct 15, 2018, 4:42 PM Oct 15, 2018, 4:42 PM

                Gaston,

                Thanks for the fast reply! My images folder does follow that format, which is what makes me worrisome as we are blocking the wp-conent folder.

                Thanks!

                GastonRiera 1 Reply Last reply Oct 15, 2018, 4:46 PM Reply Quote 0
                • GastonRiera
                  Gaston Riera @Tom3_15 last edited by Oct 15, 2018, 4:47 PM Oct 15, 2018, 4:31 PM

                  Hi Tom,

                  Yes, this config will allow images to be crawled,

                  No, this config will block images to be crawled,as long as your wordpress has the defalt folder for images: /wp-content/uploads/year/month/image-name.png

                  How to know, super easy, where your images are stored? Go to the web where you can find an image... Then right clic and then copy link address. With that link you will find that folder structure.

                  Hope it helps.
                  Best luck.
                  GR

                  Tom3_15 1 Reply Last reply Oct 15, 2018, 4:42 PM Reply Quote 0
                  • Tom3_15
                    Tom3_15 @GastonRiera last edited by Oct 15, 2018, 2:58 PM Oct 15, 2018, 2:47 PM

                    Hi Gaston,

                    I just wanted to follow up with you with one last question if possible. Would this allow my images and PDF's to be crawled & indexed still?

                    Thanks!

                    GastonRiera 1 Reply Last reply Oct 15, 2018, 4:31 PM Reply Quote 0
                    • topic:timeago_earlier,18 days
                    • Tom3_15
                      Tom3_15 @GastonRiera last edited by Sep 27, 2018, 11:52 AM Sep 27, 2018, 11:52 AM

                      Awesome. Thanks, Gaston!

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • GastonRiera
                        Gaston Riera @Tom3_15 last edited by Sep 27, 2018, 11:52 AM Sep 26, 2018, 2:57 PM

                        Yes it does.

                        As I said earlier. Copy and paste that code into the robot.txt tester in any of your search console and try with some name.css or testing.js just for testing.
                        Check the image i've attached.

                        Hope it helps.
                        Best luck
                        GR

                        btsycPz

                        Tom3_15 2 Replies Last reply Oct 15, 2018, 2:47 PM Reply Quote 3
                        • Tom3_15
                          Tom3_15 @GastonRiera last edited by Sep 26, 2018, 10:30 AM Sep 26, 2018, 10:30 AM

                          Thank you for the response. I'm still a little uncertain, does the version you wrote allow the bots to crawl the css and js as well?

                          Best

                          GastonRiera 1 Reply Last reply Sep 26, 2018, 2:57 PM Reply Quote 0
                          • GastonRiera
                            Gaston Riera last edited by Sep 25, 2018, 4:58 PM Sep 25, 2018, 4:58 PM

                            Hi Tom!

                            That Robots.txt config is pretty redundant.
                            To acheive what you what, thy this:

                            User-agent: * 
                            Disallow: /wp-admin/ 
                            Disallow: /wp-includes/
                            Disallow: /wp-content/
                            Allow: *.js
                            Allow: *.css

                            Just 3 things to note here:
                            1- That User-agent:* and those disallows blocks for every bot to crawl whats in those folders.
                            2- When blocking /wp-content/ you are also blocking the /themes/ folder and inside are the .js and .css files. Blocking those files cause to googlebot not being able to render correctly that page and see it different from what a normal user would see.
                            3- Those Allow:/ dont prevent the disallow.

                            To try that configuration, you can use the robots.txt tester in search console, just inder the Crawl menu.

                            Remember that by default google considers that you are not blocking nothing. 
                            More info here: The web robots.tat page

                            Hope it helps.
                            Best luck.
                            GR

                            Tom3_15 1 Reply Last reply Sep 26, 2018, 10:30 AM Reply Quote 4
                            • 1 / 1
                            1 out of 13
                            • First post
                              1/13
                              Last post

                            Got a burning SEO question?

                            Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                            Start my free trial


                            Browse Questions

                            Explore more categories

                            • Moz Tools

                              Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                            • SEO Tactics

                              Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                            • Community

                              Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                            • Digital Marketing

                              Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                            • Research & Trends

                              Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                            • Support

                              Connect on product support and feature requests.

                            • See all categories

                            Related Questions

                            • Katarina-Borovska

                              Collapsible sections - content

                              **Hi,****I am looking to improve the aesthetics of some pages on my website by adding written content into collapsible tabs. I was wondering whether the content that is ‘hidden’ by tabs is given less weight by Google from the perspective of SEO? **Some articles I have read suggest that tabbed content is weighted equally with the content which is already immediately visible to the user, but others suggest that this may not be the case. **Please, can I request opinions on the matter? Any advice would be greatly appreciated, many thanks.**Katarina

                              Technical SEO | Nov 17, 2019, 9:08 PM | Katarina-Borovska
                              0
                            • Roverandom

                              Why does Bing bot crawl so aggressively?

                              We observer that the Bing bot is crawling our site very aggressively. We set Bing's crawl control so that it should not crawl us during heavy traffic hours, but that did not change a thing. Does anyone have the problem and even better a solution? 

                              Technical SEO | Feb 22, 2018, 10:53 AM | Roverandom
                              1
                            • LindsayE

                              What to do with old content after 301 redirect

                              I'm going through all our blog and FAQ pages to see which ones are performing well and which ones are competing with one another. Basically doing an SEO content clean up. Is there any SEO benefit to keeping the page published vs trashing it after you apply a 301 redirect to a better performing page?

                              Technical SEO | Dec 8, 2017, 11:20 AM | LindsayE
                              0
                            • HiteshP

                              Duplicate content on job sites

                              Hi, I have a question regarding job boards. Many job advertisers will upload the same job description to multiple websites e.g. monster, gumtree, etc. This would therefore be viewed as duplicate content. What is the best way to handle this if we want to ensure our particular site ranks well? Thanks in advance for the help. H

                              Technical SEO | Apr 30, 2015, 12:57 PM | HiteshP
                              0
                            • manutx

                              SEO for User Authenticated Content

                              Hi Everyone - I have a potential client who is seeking SEO for a site that contains about 95% of content only accessible through user authentication . Does anyone have tips for getting this indexed without having to open it up to the public? I was considering adding "snippets" into the robots.txt or creating an additional page with snippets linking to the login page. I'd appreciate any thoughts! Thanks!

                              Technical SEO | Apr 19, 2013, 3:05 PM | manutx
                              0
                            • jhinchcliffe

                              Is duplicate content ok if its on LinkedIn?

                              Hey everyone, I am doing a duplicate content check using copyscape, and realized we have used a ton of the same content on LinkedIn as our website. Should we change the LinkedIn company page to be original? Or does it matter? Thank you!

                              Technical SEO | Mar 26, 2013, 6:34 PM | jhinchcliffe
                              0
                            • MirandaP

                              How to allow googlebot past paywall

                              Does anyone know of any ways or ideas to allow Google/Bing etc. to index your content, but have it behind a paywall for users?

                              Technical SEO | May 1, 2012, 5:15 AM | MirandaP
                              0
                            • hawkvt1

                              Duplicate content and http and https

                              Within my Moz crawl report, I have a ton of duplicate content caused by identical pages due to identical pages of http and https URL's. For example: http://www.bigcompany.com/accomodations https://www.bigcompany.com/accomodations The strange thing is that 99% of these URL's are not sensitive in nature and do not require any security features.  No credit card information, booking, or carts.  The web developer cannot explain where these extra URL's came from or provide any further information. Advice or suggestions are welcome!  How do I solve this issue? THANKS MOZZERS

                              Technical SEO | May 28, 2018, 11:47 PM | hawkvt1
                              0

                            Get started with Moz Pro!

                            Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                            Start my free trial
                            Products
                            • Moz Pro
                            • Moz Local
                            • Moz API
                            • Moz Data
                            • STAT
                            • Product Updates
                            Moz Solutions
                            • SMB Solutions
                            • Agency Solutions
                            • Enterprise Solutions
                            Free SEO Tools
                            • Domain Authority Checker
                            • Link Explorer
                            • Keyword Explorer
                            • Competitive Research
                            • Brand Authority Checker
                            • Local Citation Checker
                            • MozBar Extension
                            • MozCast
                            Resources
                            • Blog
                            • SEO Learning Center
                            • Help Hub
                            • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                            • How-to Guides
                            • Moz Academy
                            • API Docs
                            About Moz
                            • About
                            • Team
                            • Careers
                            • Contact
                            Why Moz
                            • Case Studies
                            • Testimonials
                            Get Involved
                            • Become an Affiliate
                            • MozCon
                            • Webinars
                            • Practical Marketer Series
                            • MozPod
                            Connect with us

                            Contact the Help team

                            Join our newsletter
                            Moz logo
                            © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                            • Accessibility
                            • Terms of Use
                            • Privacy

                            Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.