robots.txt and sitemap.xml: a complete technical SEO guide
robots.txt and sitemap.xml solve two different technical SEO problems. The first controls which URLs crawlers may fetch, while the second helps search engines discover important URLs and their metadata. Problems begin when robots.txt is used to block indexing or when a sitemap contains redirects, duplicates and noindex URLs. A solid setup combines crawl control, consistent canonical URLs, accurate sitemaps and Search Console monitoring.

