Dumb SEO Questions

(Entry was posted by Johnny Base on this post in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 04/28/2014).

"Severe health issues are found on your site."

Robot.txt
I have a new client. In the webmaster tool there is this warning "Severe health issues are found on your site. " they have a robot.txt attached to their homepage. I can`t "Fetch as Google" or run a sitemap test. the old SEO` folks never told me client anything about this. What do I make of it? Can I just remove it or did someone disavow his link. Because of his abilities in his market he could be a target for bad SEO?
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YOUR ANSWERS

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

  • Johnny Base: Robot.txt
    I have a new client. In the webmaster tool there is this warning "Severe health issues are found on your site. " they have a robot.txt attached to their homepage. I can't "Fetch as Google" or run a sitemap test. the old SEO' folks never told me client anything about this. What do I make of it? Can I just remove it or did someone disavow his link. Because of his abilities in his market he could be a target for bad SEO
  • Ujjwal Dubey: Could you plz share the url of the website
  • Pe lagic: Duplicate post >
    https://plus.google.com/114335309179752556555/posts/PER2ySiM548
  • Johnny Base: +Ujjwal Dubey ;i'm sorry but I don't feel comfortable posting the url
  • Ujjwal Dubey: +Johnny Base then plz post the complete warning message that you got in webmasters
  • Johnny Base: +Ujjwal Dubey ;Severe health issues are found on your site. Is robots.txt blocking important pages?
    Some important page is blocked by robots.txt.  ;-homepage
  • Ujjwal Dubey: Sorry +Johnny Base but without seeing the website, it's not possible for me to trace the exact issue. I never got these types of warning
  • Johnny Base: +Ujjwal Dubey ;thanks it seems it was done ;maliciously by the old SEO folks someone had to do it ;
  • Tony McCreath: How about sharing the contents of the robots.txt file. Then we will know what it is trying to do.

    A common mistake is for a developer to block the website durring development and then to forget to unblock when going live.
  • Johnny Base: +Tony McCreath ;the site has been up for 8 months
  • Mike Cooke: I agree with +Tony McCreath ;and if they were being malicious and blocking the homepage prior to handover may scare the client to come back to them after a few months of declining rankings. I would unblock the homepage and be cautious and investigate all links into the site, I have seen bad SEO companies do this and similar in the past.
  • Marty Eigner: You should be able to see the contents of the robots file in your Webmaster Tools.
  • Johnny Base: +Marty Eigner ;I have thanks

View original question in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 04/28/2014).