Descripción
Better Robots.txt replaces the default WordPress robots.txt workflow with a smarter, structured version you can configure and preview before publishing.
Instead of a blank textarea, you get a guided wizard with presets, plain-language explanations, and a final Review & Save step so you can inspect the generated robots.txt before it goes live.
Built for beginners and advanced users alike, Better Robots.txt helps you control how search engines, AI crawlers, SEO tools, archive bots, bad bots, social preview bots, and other automated agents interact with your site.
Trusted by thousands of WordPress sites, Better Robots.txt is designed for the AI era without resorting to hype, vague promises, or hidden rules.
Better Robots.txt is available in Free, Pro, and Premium editions. The free plugin covers the guided workflow and essential crawl control features, while Pro and Premium unlock additional governance, protection, and AI-ready modules. Some screenshots on the plugin page show features from all three editions.
A quick overview
Why Better Robots.txt is different
Most robots.txt plugins fall into one of three categories:
- Simple text editor
- Virtual robots.txt manager
- Single-purpose AI or policy add-on
Better Robots.txt goes further.
It gives you a complete, guided crawl control workflow so you can:
- Choose a preset that matches your goals
- Control major crawler categories without writing everything by hand
- Keep core WordPress protection rules visible and editable
- Clean up low-value crawl paths that waste crawl budget
- Generate a cleaner robots.txt output
- Preview the final result before saving
What you can control
Better Robots.txt helps you manage:
- Search engine visibility
- AI and LLM crawler behavior
- AI usage signals such as search, ai-input, and ai-train preferences
- SEO tool crawlers
- Bad bots and abusive crawlers
- Archive and Wayback access
- Feed crawlers and crawl traps
- WooCommerce crawl cleanup
- CSS, JavaScript, and image crawling rules
- Social media preview crawlers
- ads.txt and app-ads.txt allowance
- llms.txt generation
- Advanced directives such as crawl-delay and custom rules
- Final review before publishing
Editions
Better Robots.txt is available in three editions:
- Free – Includes the guided setup, the Essential preset, core crawl control features, and the final Review & Save workflow.
- Pro – Adds more advanced governance and protection modules, including additional AI, crawler, and cleanup controls.
- Premium – Unlocks the most restrictive and advanced protection options, including the Fortress preset and additional high-control modules.
Some options shown in the interface are marked Free, Pro, or Premium so users can immediately understand which modules belong to each edition.
Presets
Setup starts with four modes:
- Essential – A clean, practical configuration for most websites that want a better robots.txt without complexity.
- AI-First – For publishers and content sites that want AI-ready governance without shutting down discovery.
- Fortress – For websites that want stronger protection against scraping, archive capture, and unnecessary crawl activity.
- Custom – For users who prefer to configure each module manually.
For many sites, one preset plus a quick review is enough.
Built for beginners and experts
Beginners get:
- A guided setup instead of a raw robots.txt box
- Preset-based configuration
- Plain-language explanations for important choices
- A safer workflow with a final preview step
Advanced users get:
- Editable core WordPress protection rules
- Fine-grained crawler controls by category
- WooCommerce-oriented cleanup options
- Consolidated output options
- Advanced directives and custom rules
- A final output they can inspect before publishing
AI-ready, without hype
Better Robots.txt includes features for modern AI-related crawl governance, including:
- AI crawler handling
- Optional llms.txt support
- AI usage signals for compliant systems
- Optional machine-readable governance signals for advanced use cases
These features help you express how you want automated systems to use your content.
However, Better Robots.txt does not claim to control AI by force. Like robots.txt itself, these signals are most useful with compliant systems and good-faith crawlers.
What Better Robots.txt is
Better Robots.txt is:
- A robots.txt governance plugin for WordPress
- A guided configuration workflow instead of a raw text editor
- A crawl control layer to reduce wasteful crawling
- A practical bridge between SEO, crawl hygiene, and AI-era policy signaling
- A way to keep your crawl policy clearer for humans and machines
Technical reference for advanced users: Better Robots.txt also maintains a public GitHub repository with product definition, governance notes, and machine-readable artefacts.
What Better Robots.txt is not
Better Robots.txt is not:
- A firewall or Web Application Firewall (WAF)
- An anti-scraping enforcement engine
- A legal compliance engine
- A guarantee that every bot will obey your rules
- A replacement for server-level security or access control
It helps you publish a clearer crawl policy.
It does not replace infrastructure-level protection.
Typical use cases
Use Better Robots.txt if you want to:
- Clean up a weak or noisy default robots.txt
- Reduce crawl waste on WordPress or WooCommerce
- Keep major search engines allowed while restricting other bots
- Control whether archive bots can snapshot your site
- Publish AI usage preferences more clearly
- Keep social preview bots allowed while limiting scrapers
- Review the final file before making it live
Key Features
- Guided step-by-step wizard
- Preset-based setup: Essential, AI-First, Fortress, Custom
- Search engine visibility controls
- AI and LLM crawler governance
- AI usage signals support
- SEO tool crawler controls
- Bad bot and abusive crawler options
- Archive and Wayback access controls
- Spam, feed, and crawl trap cleanup
- WooCommerce crawl cleanup options
- CSS, JavaScript, and image crawling rules
- Social media preview crawler controls
- ads.txt and app-ads.txt allowance
- Optional llms.txt generation
- Consolidated output option
- Core WordPress protection rules remain visible and editable
- Final Review & Save preview screen
About the publisher
Better Robots.txt is developed and maintained by Pagup, a digital readability firm based in Quebec, Canada. Pagup helps organizations become correctly understood by search engines, generative AI systems, and autonomous agents.
The robots.txt file is the first surface that AI crawlers read when they discover a site. A well-structured robots.txt that references governance files such as llms.txt, ai-manifest.json, and interpretation policies helps AI systems understand your site faster and more accurately.
Better Robots.txt is one component of a broader digital readability practice that includes semantic content architecture, AI governance and machine readability, and interpretive SEO.
Part of the Pagup ecosystem
- pagup.com — Digital readability firm. Diagnostic, semantic architecture, AI governance.
- gautierdorval.com — Doctrine, canonical definitions, interpretive governance research.
- interpretive-governance.org — Formal versioned standard for interpretive governance.
- better-robots.com — Documentation and resources for Better Robots.txt.
Capturas
Step 0 – Preset selection with product introduction and setup guidance. 
Step 1 – Search engine visibility controls. 
Step 2 – AI and LLM governance settings. 
Step 4 – Bad bot protection options. 
Step 8 – WooCommerce cleanup settings. 
Step 10 – Social media crawler controls. 
Step 13 – Advanced settings and output options. 
Step 14 – Review & Save preview screen.
Instalación
- Upload the plugin files to the /wp-content/plugins/better-robots-txt/ directory, or install Better Robots.txt through the WordPress Plugins screen.
- Activate the plugin through the Plugins screen in WordPress.
- Open the Better Robots.txt settings page from your WordPress dashboard.
- Choose a preset or configure each module manually.
- Follow the wizard until the final Review & Save step.
- Review the generated robots.txt preview.
- Save your changes.
Preguntas frecuentes
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Does this plugin create or manage robots.txt?
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Yes. Better Robots.txt generates and manages your WordPress robots.txt through a guided interface, with a preview before you apply changes.
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Is this only for advanced users?
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No. The plugin is designed for both beginners and advanced users. Presets make the first setup easy, while experts can fine-tune individual modules and directives.
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Can I preview the result before saving?
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Yes. The final Review & Save step shows you the generated robots.txt before you publish it.
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Can I block AI crawlers?
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You can configure how AI-related crawlers and tools are treated and publish AI usage preferences. Respect and enforcement still depend on each crawler’s behavior, just like with robots.txt.
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Does llms.txt guarantee that AI systems will follow my rules?
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No. llms.txt and similar policy signals help you express intent more clearly, but they are not a hard technical barrier.
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Can I keep search engines allowed while restricting other bots?
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Yes. Better Robots.txt helps you differentiate between crawler categories instead of using a simple all-or-nothing approach.
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Can I change preset decisions later?
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Yes. Presets are a starting point. You can revisit the settings page, adjust modules, and regenerate your robots.txt at any time.
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Are all screenshots from the free version?
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No. The screenshots reflect the current product family and may include Free, Pro, and Premium features. Features marked Pro or Premium in the interface require a paid edition.
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Is the free version still useful on its own?
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Yes. The free edition includes the guided workflow, essential crawl control, and the final preview step. Pro and Premium are for sites that need broader governance and stricter protection.
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Does this plugin help WooCommerce sites?
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Yes. Better Robots.txt includes WooCommerce-related cleanup options to reduce unnecessary crawling of dynamic, low-value, or duplicate URLs.
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Who develops Better Robots.txt?
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Better Robots.txt is developed by Pagup, a digital readability firm based in Quebec, Canada. Pagup specializes in helping organizations become correctly readable by search engines, AI systems, and autonomous agents.
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Why does robots.txt matter for AI readability?
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Your robots.txt is the first file that AI crawlers read when they visit your site. It determines what content they can access and what governance signals they discover. In 2026, AI systems such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and autonomous agents rely on robots.txt to understand how to interact with your site. A robots.txt that references your llms.txt, ai-manifest.json, and governance policies helps these systems interpret your organization more accurately.
Learn more about AI governance and machine readability and why digital readability goes beyond traditional SEO.
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What is digital readability?
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Digital readability is the capacity of a website to be correctly understood by all four reading layers: humans, search engines, generative AI systems, and autonomous agents. Traditional SEO addresses only the search engine layer. Digital readability covers all four. Learn more at pagup.com.
Reseñas
Colaboradores y desarrolladores
Este software es de código abierto. Las siguientes personas han contribuido a este plugin.
Colaboradores
“Better Robots.txt – AI-Ready Crawl Control & Bot Governance” ha sido traducido a 3 idiomas locales. Gracias a los traductores por sus contribuciones.
Traduce “Better Robots.txt – AI-Ready Crawl Control & Bot Governance” a tu idioma.
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Registro de cambios
1.0.0
- Versión inicial.
1.0.1
- Se corrigió el problema con la url en el directorio del plugin.
- Algunas mejoras en el texto
1.0.2
- Se corrigieron algunos problemas menores con el estilo
- Se mejoró el texto y la traducción.
1.1.0
- Se agregaron algunas mejoras mayores
- La opción permitir/apagar se cambió por permitir/no permitir/apagar.
- Se mejoró el texto en general y la traducción al francés.
1.1.1
- Se corrigió un error y se mejoró el código.
1.1.2
- Se agregó la nueva funcionalidad “Bloqueador de spam en enlaces”
1.1.3
- Se corrigió un error.
1.1.4
- Se agrega nueva funcionalidad “personaliza tu robots.txt” para agregar una firma personalizada
- Se agregaron herramientas de seo recomendadas para mejorar la optimización en motores de búsqueda
1.1.5
- Se añadió funcionalidad para detectar archivos robots.txt físicos y borrarlos si los permisos del servidor lo permiten.
1.1.6
- Se agregaron los idiomas ruso y chino (simplificado)
- fixed bug causing redirection to better robots.txt settings page upon activating other plugins
1.1.7
- Se añade nueva funcionalidad: mejores plugins para tu desempeño SEO.
- fixed plugin notices issue to dismiss for define period of time after being closed
- fixed stylesheet issue to get proper updated file after plugin update (cache buster)
- Se agregaron los idiomas español y portugués.
1.1.8
- Se agregó nueva funcionalidad: Detección del mapa del sitio XML.
- Se arreglaron las traducciones.
1.1.9
- Se agregó nueva funcionalidad: cargando desempeño para woocommerce
1.1.9.1
- Se corrigió un error en la sección de anulación de reglas de WooCommerce.
1.1.9.2
- Mejora tu sitio con etiquetas alt
1.1.9.3
- Se corrigieron errores de lectura
1.1.9.4
- Se corrigió problema con el archivo predeterminado robots.txt que se daba al activar el plugin por primera vez.
- Se corrigió error de PHP al guardar los ajustes y enlaces permanentes.
- Código refactorizado
1.1.9.5
- Se agregó clean-param para el bot de Yandex.
- Se agregó la funcionalidad de solicitud de enlaces de retorno para usuarios pro.
- avoid crawler traps feature for pro users
- Se mejoraron las reglas predeterminadas de robots.txt
1.1.9.6
- added 150+ growth hacking tools
- Se corrigió error de layout
- Se actualizaron las reglas predeterminadas
1.2.0
- Added Post Meta Box to Disable Indivdual post, pages and products (woocommerce pro only). It will add Disallow and Noindex rule in robots.txt for any page you choose to disallow from post meta box options.
1.2.1
- Added multisite feature for directory based network sites (pro only). it can duplicate all default rules, yoast sitemap, woocommerce rules, bad bots, pinterest bot blocker, backlinks blocker etc with a single click for all directory based network sites.
- Se agregó una marca temporal en la versión para wp_register_script ‘assets/rt-script.js’
1.2.2
- Se corrigieron algunos puntos que creaban errores en la consola de búsqueda de Google.
- Mejora en el texto
1.2.3
- Se añadió funcionalidad para “Ocultar tu robots.txt de la página de resultados de búsqueda”
- Mejoras en el texto
1.2.4
- Se corrigió un error
- Mejoras en el texto
1.2.5
- Se corrigió error con el retraso en el rastreo.
- Se actualizaron las traducciones.
1.2.5.1
- Se corrigió un error menor
1.2.6
- Parches de seguridad en freemius sdk
1.2.6.1
- Se corrigió error de multisitio para usuarios pro.
1.2.6.2
- Se arregló el problema con el mapa de sitio de Yoast para usuario multisitio
1.2.6.3
- Se corrigió parte del texto
1.2.7
- Se incluyeron funcionalidades de Baidu/Sogou/Soso/Youdao – Los buscadores chinos, para usuarios pro
- Se agregó el rastreo de redes sociales para usuarios pro
1.2.8
- Las notificaciones serán deshabilitadas por cuatro meses. Se corrigieron algunos asuntos menores
1.2.9.2
- Se actualizaron Freemius SDK v2.3.0
- Recomendación de BIGTA
1.2.9.3
- Se corrigió un error de índice no deninido al guardar los menús de algunos sitios.
- Se eliminó la relga “noindex” de entradas individuales ya que Google dejará de soportarla a partir del 1 de septiembre de 2019.
1.3.0
- Se agregaron 5 reglas a la configuración predeterminada y se removieron 4 reglas predeterminadas que estaban causando problemas con WPML.
- Se agregó una nueva regla de búsqueda para evitar trampas en el rastreo
- Se añadieron varias nuevas reglas al bloqueador de spam en los enlaces.
- Se repararon problemas de seguridad
1.3.0.1
- Recomendación de VidSEO
1.3.0.2
- Se repararon algunos problemas de seguridad
- Se agregaron nuevas reglas al protector de vínculos de retroceso (sólo en la versión Pro).
- La notificación multisitio quedará deshabilitada permanentemente una vez que sea rechazada
1.3.0.3
- Se corrigió la notificación de PHP (en el registro de PHP) para la variable $host_url
1.3.0.4
- Se corrigió la notificación de PHP (en el registro de PHP) para la variable $active_tab
- Se corrigieron algunos dedazos
1.3.0.5
- Se agregó la opción para ser parte de nuestro movimiento mundial contra el CoronaVirus (Covid-19)
- Se corrigieron varias notificaciones no definidas en el índice (en la bitácora de php) relacionadas con las opciones de los pasos 7 y 8.
1.3.0.6
- 👌 IMPROVE: Updated freemius to latest version 2.3.2
- 🐛 CORRECCIÓN: algunos problemas menores
1.3.0.7
- 🔥 NUEVO: Promoción en WP Google Street View
- 🐛 CORRECCIÓN: algunos problemas menores de texto
1.3.1.0
- 👌 IMPROVE: Admin Notices are set to permenantly dismissed based on user.
- 👌 IMPROVE: Top level menu for Better Robots.txt Settings
- 🐛 FIX: Styling conflict with Norebro Theme.
- 🐛 FIX: Undefined variables php errors for some options
1.3.2.0
- 🐛 FIXED: XSS vulnerability.
- 🐛 FIX: Non-static method errors
- 👌 IMPROVE: Tested up to WordPress v5.5
1.3.2.1
- 🐛 FIXED: Call to undefined method error.
1.3.2.2
- 👌 IMPROVE: Update Freemius to v2.4.1
1.3.2.3
- 👌 IMPROVE: Tested up to WordPress v5.6
- 🐛 FIX: Get Pro URL
1.3.2.4
- 👌 IMPROVE: Added some more rules for Woocommerce performance
- 👌 IMPROVE: Update Freemius to v2.4.2
1.3.2.5
- 🔥 NEW: Meta Tags for SEO promotion
1.4.0
- 👌 IMPROVE: Refactored code to MVC
- 👌 MEJORA: Nuevo diseño limpio
- 👌 MEJORA: Muchas mejoras pequeñas
1.4.0.1
- 🐛 FIX: Added trailing backslash for using trait
1.4.1
- 🔥 NUEVO: funcionalidad de visibilidad en motores de búsqueda (versión PRO)
- 🔥 NEW: Image Crawlability feature (Pro version)
1.4.1.1
- 🐛 CORRECCIÓN: problema con el mapa del sitio
1.4.2
- 🐛 FIX: Bugs and improvements
- 🔥 NEW: Option to add default WordPress Sitemap (Pro Version)
- 🔥 NEW: Option to add All in One SEO Sitemap (Pro Version)
1.4.3
- 🐛 FIX: Text issues
1.4.4
- 🐛 FIX: Security fix
1.4.5
- 🐛 FIX: PHP warning undefined index
1.4.6
- 🐛 FIX: SECURITY PATCH. Verify nonce for CSRF attack.
- 🐛 FIX: PHP 8.2 warning undefined index
1.4.7
- 🐛 FIX: Removed Be part of movement against CoronaVirus (Covid-19) option
1.5.0
- 🐛 FIX: Moved Moz bots from Bad bots list to Backlink Protector list.
- 🔥 NEW: You can select and exclude bots in Backlink Protector list (Pro Version)
- 🔥 NEW: Bad Bots – “AI recommended setting” by ChatGPT-4 (Pro Version)
- 🐛 FIX: Security fix
1.5.1
- 🔥 NEW: ChatGPT Bot Blocker – Block ChatGPT Bot from scrapping your content (Pro Version)
- 👌 IMPROVE: Encapsulation of Radio Switch Buttons and code refactoring.
1.5.2
- 🐛 FIX: Class initialization
2.0.0
- 🔥 NEW: UI/UX with better experience
- 🔥 NEW: ChatGPT Bot Blocker – Block ChatGPT Bot supported in free version
- 🔥 NEW: Ads.txt and App-ads.txt support for free version
- 🐛 FIX: Personalization line break issue
- 🐛 FIX: Other fixed and improvements
2.0.1
- 🐛 FIX: Freemius SDK Security fix
2.0.2
- 🔥 NEW: Generate a Physical file in PRO version. Recommended for PageSpeed Insights compatibility.
- 👌 IMPROVE: Update Freemius to v2.12.0
2.0.3
- 👌 IMPROVE: Physical file (PRO version) functionality. Recommended for PageSpeed Insights compatibility.
- 👌 IMPROVE: Update Freemius to v2.13.0
2.0.4
- 🐛 FIX: Freemius and dev mode issues.
3.0.0
- 🔥 NEW: 14-steps granular configuration process
- 🔥 NEW: Complete UI redesign with an intuitive stepper-based interface and dynamic Preview
- 🔥 NEW: Configuration Modes: Custom, Free, Pro, and Premium Presets
- 🔥 NEW: Granular AI & LLM Governance (Block AI training bots, OpenAI, Claude, AI search engines)
- 🔥 NEW: SSA (Safe Software Association) doctrine integration for AI governance declaration
- 🔥 NEW: Advanced Bot & Scraper protection with new basic and AI-curated full lists
- 🔥 NEW: Enhanced Spam & Feed Protection (Feeds, author archives, comments)
- 🔥 NEW: Advanced E-commerce optimization for WooCommerce
- 🔥 NEW: Dedicated control for Social Media bots, Archive Services, and Ads crawlability
- 🐛 FIX: Numerous backend optimizations, compatibility improvements, and security patches
3.0.1
- 🐛 FIX: Removed Push notification popup during freemius opt-in.
- 👌 IMPROVE: Update Freemius to v2.13.1