Fix Blocked by Robots.txt Error

 

When reviewing your Page Indexing report in Google Search Console, seeing the "Blocked by robots.txt" status can be alarming. You want your content to be found, but Google is explicitly telling you that its crawlers are not allowed to look at your pages.

​Unlike other errors where Google assesses the quality of your page, this error means Googlebot was stopped at the front door of your website. Your own server configuration told the crawler to turn around and leave.

​Here is exactly why your site is blocking search engines and how to fix your configuration to get your pages crawled and indexed.

​Key Takeaways

• ​A robots.txt file is a rulebook that tells search engines which pages they can and cannot visit.
• ​The "Blocked by robots.txt" error means you have accidentally forbidden Googlebot from crawling a specific URL.
• ​If a URL is blocked, Google cannot read its content, meaning it will likely drop out of search results.
• ​You can fix this by editing the text file in your Blogger dashboard to remove the restrictive commands.

​Why This Status Appears

​Your robots.txt file is a simple text file that lives at the root directory of your website. It acts as a traffic cop for search engines, using commands like Allow and Disallow.

​If you or your website theme accidentally added a Disallow: / command to a specific folder, category, or article, Googlebot will obey that rule and refuse to crawl the page.

​Quick Note: If you want to understand exactly how bots read this file before they enter your site, read our complete guide on how Google crawls websites step-by-step.

​How to Fix the Blocked Error

​To resolve this issue, you need to open your traffic cop's rulebook and rewrite the rules so Googlebot is allowed back in.

​1. Check Your Custom Robots.txt Settings

​If you are using Blogger, you have direct control over this file. Go to your Blogger dashboard, click on Settings, and scroll down to the Crawlers and indexing section. Check if the "Enable custom robots.txt" switch is turned on. If it is, click on "Custom robots.txt" to view your current rules.

​2. Remove the Restrictive Tags

​Look closely at the text. You are searching for any line that says Disallow followed by the URL path that is currently failing to index.

​For example, if the line says Disallow: /2026/04/ and your new blog post is in that folder, you are blocking the crawler. Carefully delete the specific Disallow line that is causing the problem and click Save.

​Important Detail: If you accidentally blocked a page that was already ranking well, it might vanish from search results until you fix this. Read our guide on why Google deindexes pages to understand how to recover lost traffic.

​3. Test the Live URL

​Once you have saved your updated file, open Google Search Console and use the URL Inspection Tool at the top of the screen. Paste your previously blocked URL and hit Enter. Click the "Test Live URL" button. If you fixed the file correctly, the test will come back green and confirm that the page is now "Allowed to crawl."

​Next Steps: Once the live test is successful, you should force an update. Follow our exact tutorial on how to reindex a page fast in Google to get your URLs crawled immediately.

​Frequently Asked Questions (Q&A)

​Does a robots.txt block hurt my SEO?

Yes, if it is blocking important content. If Google cannot crawl your high-quality articles, it cannot index or rank them, meaning you will get zero organic traffic to those specific pages.

​Should I disable my custom robots.txt entirely?

If you are a beginner and aren't sure how to write the syntax correctly, it is often safer to toggle "Enable custom robots.txt" to the OFF position. Blogger's default, hidden robots.txt file is already perfectly optimized for SEO and will not block your standard posts.

​Can a blocked page still appear in Google search?

Occasionally, yes. If many other websites link to your blocked page, Google might index the URL itself based solely on the anchor text of those external links. However, because Googlebot cannot actually read the page, the search result will look broken and will not have a proper meta description.