Audit rules
robots.txt Missing
The site has no robots.txt file (404 or 410). Crawling is not restricted, so this is shown for review only. In a QuikSEO audit, a failure of this rule has warning severity and counts against the score. Below are the exact condition, its exceptions and the sources behind it, followed by the other rules of the same group.
indexing.robots_txt_missingWarning01 — Definition
How This Rule Is Checked
The rule is a pure function of the fetched page: no extra requests, no account settings. The same input always gives the same result.
Rule Severity and Score
- Rule id
indexing.robots_txt_missing- Group
- Indexing
- Severity of a failure
- Warning
- Counts in the score
- Yes, whenever it applies to the page
- Required for a score
- No
- Replaces the check
robots
Condition and Exceptions
- Condition
- Probe robots status 404/410 → review; error if expect_crawl is not relevant (always review)
- Exceptions
- No probe → not_checked
Sources
- Sources
- How Google Interprets the robots.txt Specification (Google for Developers, S14)
RFC 9309: Robots Exclusion Protocol (section 2.3.1.3, Unavailable Status) (IETF, Q81)
02 — Indexing
Other Rules in This Group
The other checks of the same group, each with its own condition and sources.
- Contradictory Robots Directivesindexing.contradictory_directives
- llms.txt Fileindexing.llms_txt
- Links Not Followedindexing.nofollow_page
- Images Blocked From Indexingindexing.noimageindex
- Page Blocked From Indexingindexing.noindex
- Blocked by robots.txtindexing.robots_txt_blocked
- Not Indexed in Search Consoleindexing.search_console
- Sitemap Not Declared in robots.txtindexing.sitemap_not_declared
- Soft 404indexing.soft_404