"errors in your robots.txt file"

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

• 
  Rotimi Orimoloye: Hi Everybody.
  
  I keep having problems with this same site over and over.
  
  >At first GWT suddenly came up with a message saying, "errors in your robots.txt file" when the site never had a robots.txt file.
  Anyway +Rand Wilson ;and others in this community advised me to upload a blank txt file as my robots.txt which I did. ;
  
  >But now, GWT has come up with this new message "Google couldn't access your site because of a server connectivity error"
  
  See the Link ;101business(dot)tv
• 
  Rotimi Orimoloye: Pardon me, I've shortened the post, because I imagine it was  ;way too long for most people.
  lol
• 
  Rand Wilson: I'm able to get to your site, and to your blank robots.txt file.. I would wait a while and see if Google still can't reach the site, and if not, start troubleshooting - starting with any firewalls, or anything that would intentionally block connectivity.
• 
  Rotimi Orimoloye: Thank you +Rand Wilson ;I try to get some info from the developer, but he doesn't really give me much to work on. It's as if we speak different languages. He is the tech person, I try to ask him questions based on what I am reading about from GWT's help files and all, but he never seems to have an answer. ;
  
  And that's very tough for me, because I only know enough technical/backend stuff to upload GA tracking and a few rich snippets.
  I'm working on that though. :-)
• 
  Rand Wilson: you need a new tech person.
• 
  Rotimi Orimoloye: I guessed as much.
  But how do I break that news to my friend who owns the site.
  
  Also, ;in my country....good ones are sooo hard to find. ;
  And even where there are some developers who keep up with web updates, they're already very rich. So you would need to offer them a fortune just to get their attention. lol ;
• 
  Jim Munro: It's OK to have no robots.txt at all but if you have a file that responds 200 OK you need to be sure that it says what you want.
  
  I've seen many sites with blank robots.txt files reporting issues on the GWMF. I think that some of Tad Chef's blog problems might stem from this but I am not game to tell him. :)
• 
  Tim Quin: Rotimi, have you checked the Google forums to see if anyone else is having the same issues. I know people have had the same error in the past and Google have confirmed it was a problem their end but it took some while to resolve the issue.
  
  Have you also checked with the hosting provider? What are their down-time stats, are they doing scheduled maintenance?
  
  Similarly, it might also be worth checking the DNS to see if there are any issues.
  
  If all of the above are OK then as +Rand Wilson says, it could be an issue with the firewall.
  
  An unwillingness to cooperate on the part of the webmaster seems to be a common problem SEO's come up against, especially if the webmaster feels they have already optimized the site. I think they feel their toes are being trodden on. Or they have far too much workload to deal with your petty SEO issues. Try to see things from his point of view and praise him for stuff that he has done well. Or maybe see if you can work with him on some of his other projects forming a bit of a partnership. More work for you and he can offer another service to his clients. Hopefully using a bit of diplomacy will make him a little more amenable.
  
  Not sure if you are aware but I also noticed several dead links in the top nav bar. Media, events, blog and SOE all have issues.
  
  Anyway that's about all I can suggest I'm afraid, hope it has been of some help.
• 
  Rotimi Orimoloye: Thanks for the great tips +Tim Quin ;I'll pursue those options ASAP.
  
  I am fully aware of those linkage errors. They happen almost every week and i fix them almost as frequently.
  
  Every time the web guy does anything at all on the site, he ends up leaving it with broken links. ;
  Upload a video...breaks some links.
  Add a news item....breaks some more links.
  
  It get's tiring sometimes.
  
  It's a friend's site, and she isn't really paying me for it. Yet still, I seem to be the only one fussing about getting things to work well.
  
  Thanks again for your feedback. :)