robots.txt issue

  • kmstobi

    (@kmstobi)


    9 years, 3 months ago

    This plugin changes your robots.txt file which can cause ranking loss!

    User should check their robots.txt File in order to avoid any surpise.
    It is hard to get rid of. After deleting the plugin several month ago the robots file was changed! Needed to mail google in order to correct this. It is not a good thing, when a plugin changes so important files. Even the changes are permanent.

    The search functionality by the way is great for sure and very fast. But because of this issue i cannot recommend it. Support was very kind but not really helpful.

    They contacted me to discuss a “honest” review after this review. Well, tis is a honest review.

    • This topic was modified 9 years, 3 months ago by kmstobi.
    • This topic was modified 9 years, 3 months ago by kmstobi.
Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
  • Plugin Author Fast Simon

    (@instantsearchplus)

    9 years, 3 months ago

    Hi kmstobi,
    Sorry for your inconvenience.
    Please let us know what is the issue by replying to our support at [email protected]

    Hope to solve this shortly,

    Thread Starter kmstobi

    (@kmstobi)

    9 years, 3 months ago

    Please jsut google this and you will see lots of websites with this

    # START Instantsearch+
    SITEMAP: https://woo.instantsearchplus.com/ext_sitemap?u=***CODE that could identify you***
    # END Instantsearch+

    Plugin Author Fast Simon

    (@instantsearchplus)

    9 years, 3 months ago

    Hi- Please contact us at [email protected] so we can approach the issue better.
    Thanks.

    Moderator Jan Dembowski

    (@jdembowski)

    Forum Moderator and Brute Squad

    9 years, 3 months ago

    *Looks. Really?*

    @instantsearchplus You need to explain this part.

    https://plugins.trac.ww.wp.xz.cn/browser/instantsearch-for-woocommerce/trunk/public/wcis_plugin.php#L3508

    You were called out on modifying the robots.txt file and your reply is “let’s take this via email”?

    I’ve reported this to the plugins team.

    Plugin Author Fast Simon

    (@instantsearchplus)

    9 years, 3 months ago

    Dear Tobias Werner and Jan Dembowki,

    The issue was resolved yesterday by our support. It seems like Tobias has been seeing a cached version of their robots.txt file which is beyond the InstantSearch+ scope.

    Just to summarize, our plugin added an additional sitemap to the robots.txt resource of the WordPress server. This additional sitemap contains the most popular search queries results page to help boost SEO. This is a feature that can be turned off by site owners in our dashboard.

    Plugin Author Fast Simon

    (@instantsearchplus)

    9 years, 3 months ago

    To address Tobias Werner notes:

    This plugin changes your robots.txt File which can cause ranking loss!

    Our plugin only adds an additional sitemap to the robots.txt the point search engines to your most popular search queries results page. No ranking loss can be caused by that.

    User should check their robots.txt File in order to avoid any surpise.
    It is hard to get rid of – needed to mail google in order to change this.

    Merchants can easily disable the additional sitemap addition from the Sync tab of our dashboard.

    Thread Starter kmstobi

    (@kmstobi)

    9 years, 3 months ago

    Dear Ed Mellone, or who is wrting here. Your support didnt resolve anything!
    Be honest, guys.

    Just google the added line of your plugin and voila you will see a lot of websites with that robots.txt file.

    • This reply was modified 9 years, 3 months ago by kmstobi.
    Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist

    9 years, 3 months ago

    1) You should never be writing to the robots.txt without the users being aware this is a thing

    2) Why are you WRITING a file at all?

    https://developer.ww.wp.xz.cn/reference/functions/do_robots/

    You should be filtering it properly.

    Plugin Author Fast Simon

    (@instantsearchplus)

    9 years, 3 months ago

    Hi Mika,
    In our dashboard we have a clear switch describing the additional line we add in robots.txt. Other than that we’re not changing the content of the file.

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

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