How to Check and Fix robots.txt on Squarespace
Robots.txt is a plain-text file at the root of your site that tells crawlers which areas they may fetch. A missing file means no restrictions, which is often fine, but a wrong rule can quietly block Google or AI tools from your whole site.
The fix on Squarespace
Squarespace generates robots.txt for you and it cannot be edited directly. To change what it allows, go to Settings > Crawlers. One checkbox blocks search engines and another blocks known AI crawlers. Visit yoursite.com/robots.txt afterwards to see the result.
Builder menus change over time. If a label looks different, look for the closest option and check Squarespace's help centre.
What to know about Squarespace
Crawler control, simplified
Two toggles, not a file editor
Settings → Crawlers gives two checkboxes: block search engines entirely, or block a fixed list of 26 named AI crawlers entirely.
Why this matters
Robots.txt is a file that tells search engines which parts of your site to crawl. Without it Google has no instructions and may waste crawl time on pages you don't want indexed, like admin or thank-you pages.
How to check it worked
- Open yourdomain.com/robots.txt in your browser. A short list of rules means the file exists.
- Paste the contents into the Robots.txt Tester to see which crawlers are allowed or blocked on a given page.
Common questions
Does every site need a robots.txt file?
No. Without one, crawlers assume they may fetch everything. It becomes important when you want to keep specific areas out of crawling or to point to your sitemap.
Can I edit robots.txt on Squarespace?
It depends on the platform. See the steps and platform notes on this page for what is editable here.
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