SEO finding
A newly blocked path that has search traffic
SEO Error Severity: High
Part of the audit A newly blocked path that has search traffic. Finding id: seo.blockedPathWithTraffic.
What it costs you
Those pages stop being crawled and lose their place in search results over the following weeks.
What to do
Delete the line, or narrow it to the part of the path you meant to block.
What it checks
- New blocking rule since last check
- Blocked path had search visits recently
How to fix it
Message for IT
- robots.txt line [line]: Disallow: [path]
- Change: delete line [line], or replace it with the narrower path that was intended.
How to check: Fetch /robots.txt and confirm the line is gone; run this rule again.
A real case
A development team released a robots.txt that blocked the production site, and the owner lost all organic traffic, 85 to 90% of the site's total. Almost two months later it had not come back.
How to verify by hand
Search Console clicks for the URLs the new rule matches, over the 90 days before the change.
What this relies on
Blocking a path that earns search traffic is a mistake unless the content was removed on purpose.