Introduction
Imagine putting up a “Do Not Enter” sign on your store’s front door, only to find out that people are still talking about what’s inside. That’s exactly what happens when Google indexes a page that, Indexed, Though blocked by robots.txt. It’s frustrating, confusing, and if you’re not careful, it can mess with your SEO strategy.
So, what’s going on here? Why does Google sometimes ignore your robots.txt directives and index pages anyway? And more importantly, does this impact your website’s rankings, crawl budget, or overall SEO health?
Don’t worry—I’ve got you covered. In this post, we’ll break down:
- Why Google indexes blocked pages
- How it affects your SEO performance
- The best ways to fix the issue and regain control
Let’s dive in!
Table of Contents
What Happens When Pages Are Indexed, Though Blocked by robots.txt?
When you block a webpage using the robots.txt file, you’re essentially telling search engines, “Hey, don’t crawl this page.” However, this doesn’t mean Google won’t index it. If there are external links pointing to that blocked page, or if Google has previously indexed the page, it might still show up in search results.
Google’s official documentation states:
“Blocking a page with
robots.txtdoes not necessarily prevent it from being indexed if other pages link to it.”
How Does This Happen?
Here are the main reasons why Google might index a blocked page:
- Backlinks from External Sites: If another website links to your blocked page, Google might index it based on that reference.
- Internal Links: If your website contains internal links to the blocked page, it signals to Google that the page exists.
- Google Previously Crawled It: If Google had indexed the page before you blocked it, it may still be in the index.
- Sitemaps Inclusion: If the blocked page is in your XML sitemap, Google might attempt to index it.
Example Scenario
Imagine you have a page: example.com/secret-offers
You add this rule in robots.txt:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /secret-offersYet, you still see it in Google Search Console with the status “Indexed, though blocked by robots.txt.” This happens if someone links to example.com/secret-offers from another website. Since Google can’t crawl the content, it might only show the URL in search results, but not a meta description or snippet.
How Does “Indexed Though Blocked by robots.txt” Affect SEO?
1. Reduced Control Over Search Results
Since Google can’t crawl the blocked page, it doesn’t display a proper meta description. Instead, search results might look like this:
example.com/secret-offers
No information is available for this page.This can hurt click-through rates (CTR), as users don’t see any context about the page.
2. Wasted Crawl Budget
If Google keeps trying to access blocked pages, it might waste valuable crawl budget, meaning fewer important pages get indexed efficiently.
3. Ranking Issues
Blocked pages won’t pass link juice properly. If a high-authority site links to a blocked page, that SEO benefit may not be transferred to your other pages.
4. Confusion in Indexing Priorities
When Google indexes blocked pages, it might prioritize them incorrectly over other important pages. This can dilute your keyword strategy and affect rankings.
How to Fix “Indexed Though Blocked by robots.txt”
1. Use “noindex” Instead of robots.txt
If you truly don’t want Google to index a page, use the noindex tag in the page’s <head> instead of blocking it via robots.txt.
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">🔹 Recommended Image: Screenshot of an HTML <head> section with the noindex meta tag.
2. Remove Internal Links to Blocked Pages
Check your website for internal links pointing to blocked pages and remove them if they’re unnecessary.
3. Use Google’s URL Removal Tool
For immediate deindexing, use the Google Search Console Removals Tool.
4. Check Your XML Sitemap
Ensure your sitemap does not include blocked pages. A quick way to check:
https://example.com/sitemap.xmlIf blocked pages appear in your sitemap, remove them.
🔹 Recommended Image: Screenshot of an XML sitemap with problematic URLs highlighted.
check out How to Fix ‘Indexed, though Blocked by robots.txt’ in Blogger:
5. Allow Crawling, But Block Indexing
If you still need to restrict access but allow crawling, remove the block in robots.txt and use noindex.
Best Practices for Managing robots.txt and Indexing
| Best Practice | Why It’s Important |
|---|---|
Use noindex instead of blocking via robots.txt | Ensures search engines don’t index the page |
| Regularly audit your robots.txt file | Prevents accidental blocking of important pages |
Avoid blocking essential pages like /wp-content/uploads | Ensures media files are indexed properly |
| Monitor Search Console for warnings | Helps catch indexing issues early |
Final Thoughts
Seeing “Indexed, though blocked by robots.txt” in Google Search Console isn’t always a bad thing, but it can indicate SEO inefficiencies. If you want to prevent pages from appearing in search results, rely on noindex instead of robots.txt.
By following best practices and regularly monitoring your indexing status, you can ensure a clean, optimized website that performs well in search rankings.
