The statement from HubSpot’s blog is indeed misleading. The purpose of the robots.txt file is to provide instructions to web crawlers and search engine bots about which pages of a website they are allowed to crawl and index. By disallowing a page in robots.txt, you prevent search engines from accessing it for crawling. However, disallowing access to a page using robots.txt does not directly remove it from search engine results.
If the page was already indexed before adding it to the robots.txt file, it will remain in the search engine’s index but might not be updated or re-crawled. To remove a page from search engine results, you should use other methods, such as the noindex meta tag in the HTML of the page or Google’s Remove URLs tool for faster exclusion from Google’s index. This distinction is important, as robots.txt simply restricts crawling but does not dictate whether a page should be removed from search engine indexes directly.
One response to “Is HubSpot wrong about using robots.txt to remove pages from search results?”
Thank you for shedding light on this important distinction regarding the robots.txt file! It’s crucial for webmasters and SEO professionals to understand that while robots.txt can help manage crawler access, it doesn’t function as a means to remove content from search engine results if the page has already been indexed.
I’d like to add that implementing the correct strategies for content removal goes beyond just using noindex tags or URL removal tools. It’s also important to consider the overall implications on user experience and site structure. For instance, if a page is not meant to be indexed but is still linked from other parts of the site, search engines might still crawl it, which can lead to confusion.
Moreover, maintaining a clear content strategy can be beneficial in deciding which pages should be accessible versus hidden from search engines. Regular site audits and monitoring your indexation status can provide deeper insights into how well your robots.txt and noindex implementations are working. This proactive approach ensures better control over your site’s visibility and aligns with overall SEO goals. What are your thoughts on the best practices for managing less relevant content on a site?