Virtual Robots.txt
Virtual Robots.txt automatically creates a robots.txt file for your site. Your robots.txt file can be easily edited from the plugin settings page.
4.3(10 reviews)
·50K+ active installs·Updated 3 months agoAs of April 2026, Virtual Robots.txt is a WordPress robots plugin with 50K+ active installations and a 4.3/5 rating from 10 reviews. It has been downloaded 442K+ times in total. Requires WordPress 5.0+ and PHP false+. Available on WordPress.org since 2009. Download volume is stable this week. Top alternative: XML Sitemap & Google News.
4.3/510 reviews
50K+active installs
442K+total downloads
17 yearssince 2009
Overview
Virtual Robots.txt is an easy (i.e. automated) solution to creating and managing a robots.txt file for your site. Instead of mucking about with FTP, files, permissions ..etc, just upload and activate the plugin and you’re done.
By default, the Virtual Robots.txt plugin allows access to the parts of WordPress that good bots like Google need to access. Other parts are blocked.
If the plugin detects an existing XML sitemap file, a reference to it will be automatically added to your robots.txt file.
Ratings & Reviews
4.310 reviews
5 ★
8
4 ★
0
3 ★
0
2 ★
1
1 ★
1
Recent Reviews
This plugin is working great for me
by commexjimmy·2 months ago
I have used this plugin for many years and never had a problem with it. So with that said, I do highly recommend it.
Doesn’t seem to work as described
by treysuttle·2 years ago·4 replies
I had an issue that I believed was being caused by the plugin but the plugin author was very quick to help and clear up the issue. Great and helpful customer service – thanks!
- This topic was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by treysuttle.
Very useful
by Denis Creative·4 years ago
Simple and easy. Works perfectly.
Great plugin!
by yorgosx·7 years ago
Works great and easy to use and customise. It already set by default the directories that need to be left out of Search Engines scanning/indexing…
Very happy with it!
It wasn’t what I expected.
by Josh Gellock·8 years ago·1 reply
What I saw wasn’t what I got. The XML sitemap wasn’t included in the robots.txt file, even thought this was described as a feature that should work out of the box. In addition to that, upon installing this plugin, it blocked certain directories without asking. Lastly, it inserts a line at the top of the file, promoting the plugin. That should be an optional feature that users are empowered to turn off. All in all, it offers the functionality, but falls short and disappoints in other areas.
- This topic was modified 8 years ago by Josh Gellock.
Download Trends
Today: 69Yesterday: 98This week: 480Period total: 29K
Compatibility
| WordPress | 5.0+ requiredTested up to 6.9.4 |
| PHP | false+ required |
Version Adoption
v1.10
92.6%
v1.9
6.3%
Other
1.2%
Top Alternatives to Virtual Robots.txt
Frequently Asked Questions
Changelog
1.10
- Fix to prevent the saving of HTML tags within the robots.txt form field. Thanks to TrustWave for identifying this issue.
Contributors
Plugin data sourced from WordPress.org. Analysis and metrics by PluginSift.