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
    • MozCon
    • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Digital Marketers
    • Agency Solutions
    • Enterprise Solutions
    • Small Business Solutions
    • 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.

    Track AI Overviews in Keyword Research
    Moz Pro

    Track AI Overviews in Keyword Research

    Try it free!
  • 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
    • Digital Marketers

      Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

    • 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.

    • 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. Intermediate & Advanced SEO
  4. What does Disallow: /french-wines/?* actually do - robots.txt

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.

What does Disallow: /french-wines/?* actually do - robots.txt

Intermediate & Advanced SEO
2
8
1.6k
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.
  • McTaggart
    McTaggart last edited by Mar 16, 2017, 10:01 AM

    Hello Mozzers - Just wondering what this robots.txt instruction means: Disallow: /french-wines/?*

    Does it stop Googlebot crawling and indexing URLs in that "French Wines" folder - specifically the URLs that include a question mark?

    Would it stop the crawling of deeper folders - e.g. /french-wines/rhone-region/ that include a question mark in their URL?

    I think this has been done to block URLs containing query strings.

    Thanks, Luke

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • LoganRay
      LoganRay @McTaggart last edited by Mar 21, 2017, 10:39 AM Mar 21, 2017, 10:39 AM

      Glad to help, Luke!

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • McTaggart
        McTaggart @LoganRay last edited by Mar 21, 2017, 10:25 AM Mar 21, 2017, 10:25 AM

        Thanks Logan for your help with this - much appreciated. Really helpful!

        LoganRay 1 Reply Last reply Mar 21, 2017, 10:39 AM Reply Quote 0
        • LoganRay
          LoganRay @McTaggart last edited by Mar 21, 2017, 10:23 AM Mar 16, 2017, 3:25 PM

          Disallow: /?* is the same thing as Disallow:/?, since the asterisk is a wildcard, both of those disallows prevent any URL that begins with /? from being crawled.

          And yes, it is incredibly easy to disallow the wrong thing! The robots.txt tester in Search Console (under the Crawl menu) is very helpful for figuring out what a disallow will catch and what it will let by. I highly recommend testing any new disallows there before releasing them into the wild.

          McTaggart 1 Reply Last reply Mar 21, 2017, 10:25 AM Reply Quote 1
          • McTaggart
            McTaggart @LoganRay last edited by Mar 16, 2017, 2:02 PM Mar 16, 2017, 2:02 PM

            Thanks again Logan.

            What would Disallow: /?* do because that is what the site I am looking at has implemented. Perhaps it works both ways around?

            I imagine it's easy to disallow the wrong thing or possibly not disallow the right thing. Ugh.

            LoganRay 1 Reply Last reply Mar 16, 2017, 3:25 PM Reply Quote 0
            • LoganRay
              LoganRay @McTaggart last edited by Mar 21, 2017, 10:24 AM Mar 16, 2017, 1:03 PM

              Disallow: /*?

              This disallow literally says to crawlers 'if a URL starts with a slash (all URLs) and has a parameter, don't crawl it'. The * is a wildcard that says anything between / and ? is applicable to the disallow.

              It's very easy to disallow the wrong this especially in regards to parameters, for this reason I always do these 2 things rather than using robots.txt:

              1. Set the purpose of each parameter in Search Console - Go to Crawl > URL Parameters to configure for your site
              2. Self-referring canonicals - most people disallow URLs with parameters in robots.txt to prevent indexing, but this only prevents crawling. A self-referring canonical pointing to the root level of that URL will prevent indexing or URLs with parameters.

              Hope that's helpful!

              McTaggart 1 Reply Last reply Mar 16, 2017, 2:02 PM Reply Quote 1
              • McTaggart
                McTaggart @LoganRay last edited by Mar 16, 2017, 10:16 AM Mar 16, 2017, 10:16 AM

                Thanks Logan - I was just reading: Disallow: /*? # block any URL that includes a ? (and thus a query string) - do you know why the ? comes before the * in this case?

                LoganRay 1 Reply Last reply Mar 16, 2017, 1:03 PM Reply Quote 0
                • LoganRay
                  LoganRay last edited by Mar 16, 2017, 10:05 AM Mar 16, 2017, 10:05 AM

                  Hi Luke,

                  You are correct that this was done to block URLs with parameters. However, since there's no wildcard (the asterisk) before the folder name, the URL would have to start with /french-wines/. This disallow is really only preventing crawling on the single URL www.yoursite.com/french-wines/ with any parameters appended.

                  McTaggart 1 Reply Last reply Mar 16, 2017, 10:16 AM Reply Quote 0
                  • 1 / 1
                  1 out of 8
                  • First post
                    1/8
                    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

                  • Web3Marketing87

                    P.O Box VS. Actual Address

                    We have a website (http://www.delivertech.ca) that uses a P.O Box number versus an actual address as their "location". Does this affect SEO? Is it better to use an actual address? Thanks.

                    Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Jun 29, 2016, 4:09 PM | Web3Marketing87
                    0
                  • lunavista-comm

                    Why is Google ranking irrelevant / not preferred pages for keywords?

                    Over the past few months we have been chipping away at duplicate content issues. We know this is our biggest issue and is working against us. However, it is due to this client also owning the competitor site. Therefore, product merchandise and top level categories are highly similar, including a shared server. Our rank is suffering major for this, which we understand.  However, as we make changes, and I track and perform test searches, the pages that Google ranks for keywords never seems to match or make sense, at all. For example, I search for "solid scrub tops" and it ranks the "print scrub tops" category. Or the "Men Clearance" page is ranking for  keyword "Women Scrub Pants". Or, I will search for a specific brand, and it ranks a completely different brand. Has anyone else seen this behavior with duplicate content issues?  Or is it an issue with some other penalty?  At this point, our only option is to test something and see what impact it has, but it is difficult to do when keywords do not align with content.

                    Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Dec 1, 2015, 7:53 PM | lunavista-comm
                    0
                  • Kingalan1

                    Meta Robot Tag:Index, Follow, Noodp, Noydir

                    When should "Noodp" and "Noydir" meta robot tag be used? I have hundreds or URLs for real estate listings on my site that simply use "Index", Follow" without using Noodp and Noydir. Should the listing pages use these Noodp and Noydr also? All major landing pages use Index, Follow, Noodp, Noydir. Is this the best setting in terms of ranking and SEO. Thanks, Alan

                    Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Nov 20, 2020, 6:27 AM | Kingalan1
                    0
                  • EileenCleary

                    Javascript onclick redirects / porn sites...

                    We noticed around 7 websites which with domains that were just recently registered (with privacy protection). They are using our website keywords/titles and brand name and the sites are mostly porn / junk sites. They don't link to our website directly but use a javascript onclick redirect which is why we think we aren't seeing them in our backlinks report.  We've been in business for over 12 years and haven't come across sites like this before.  We recently lost our first page rankings for a few of our highest converting key phrases and have been digging in to possible causes. Just wondering if these sites could be impacting our results, and how to figure out if there are more like this? Examples: nesat.net
                    flowmeterdirectory.biz
                    finnsat.net
                    dotsjobs.net

                    Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Apr 20, 2015, 5:35 PM | EileenCleary
                    0
                  • McTaggart

                    Membership/subscriber (/customer) only content and SEO best practice

                    Hello Mozzers, I was wondering whether there's any best practice guidance out there re: how to deal with membership/subscriber (existing customer) only content on a website, from an SEO perspective - what is best practice? A few SEOs have told me to make some of the content visible to Google, for SEO purposes, yet I'm really not sure whether this is acceptable / manipulative, and I don't want to upset Google (or users for that matter!) Thanks in advance, Luke

                    Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Mar 19, 2015, 7:10 PM | McTaggart
                    0
                  • ntcma

                    Should I use meta noindex and robots.txt disallow?

                    Hi, we have an alternate "list view" version of every one of our search results pages The list view has its own URL, indicated by a URL parameter I'm concerned about wasting our crawl budget on all these list view pages, which effectively doubles the amount of pages that need crawling When they were first launched, I had the noindex meta tag be placed on all list view pages, but I'm concerned that they are still being crawled Should I therefore go ahead and also apply a robots.txt disallow on that parameter to ensure that no crawling occurs? Or, will Googlebot/Bingbot also stop crawling that page over time? I assume that noindex still means "crawl"... Thanks 🙂

                    Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Oct 20, 2014, 2:37 PM | ntcma
                    0
                  • 6thirty

                    Should you include domain / brand in Meta Title

                    Hello, I am trying to come up with a strategy for creating meta title information for my eCommerce store. I have read mixed reviews on the examples below. The first includes the company / brand in the meta title and thus is included in SE results. The second does not. Probably not a 'right' answer here so I look forward to answers with rationale... also open to a completely difference strategy all together! 1MR Vortex by BPI Sports - $Company_Name OR 1MR Vortex by BPI Sports - Pre Workout Supplement Thanks!

                    Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Mar 19, 2014, 3:31 AM | 6thirty
                    0
                  • Mark_Ch

                    Best Practice For Company/Client Logo Endorsement

                    Article: http://searchengineland.com/homepage-sliders-are-bad-for-seo-usability-163496 I came across the following article and somewhat agree with the authors summary.
                    I find sliders a distraction to B2B users and overall offers no SEO benefits. Scenario
                    As a service provider, over time I have worked with many high profile blue chip comnpanies. As part of my site redesign, I'm looking to show users my client achievements. My initial thoughts are to carry out the following: On the home page I'm looking to incorporate some high profile company logos (similar to http://www.semrush.com) with a hyperlink "more customers" to the right of logo caption. The link will take the user to a dedicated page (www.mydomain.co.uk/customer) showing a comprehensive list of company logos. Questions
                    #1 Is the above practice good or bad.
                    #2 Is there a better way to achieve the above Any other practical advise on user experience, social engagement, website speed, etc would be much appreciated. Thanks Mark

                    Intermediate & Advanced SEO | Oct 11, 2013, 12:25 AM | Mark_Ch
                    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
                  • Digital Marketers
                  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.