Website, data and developer utilities: guides

116 guides in this section. Pick the question closest to yours, or browse by tool. Page 5 of 5

• My store is on Salla or Zid and I cannot edit robots.txt. How do I check that my product pages are not blocked by it?On a hosted store you read the file rather than write it. Copy its rules into the builder, test real product paths and see which rule decides.
• How do I ask AI crawlers such as GPTBot not to collect my site's content, without blocking search engines?A separate group per named crawler with Disallow: /, leaving the * group for search engines as it is. How to test it, and why only crawlers that choose to comply obey.
• Search Console says a product page is blocked by robots.txt. How do I find out which rule is blocking it?Rebuild your rules in the builder, paste the report's full URL into the tester and see the winning rule. Why a pattern like /*? catches variant links.
• I wrote Disallow: /shop to block one folder. Why is /shop-by-brand blocked too?A robots.txt rule matches every path that begins with it, so a rule with no trailing slash catches more. How to limit it to the folder, and block the page with $.
• My category pages repeat under ?sort= and ?filter= links. Should I block them in robots.txt, and how do I write the rule so nothing slips through?/*?sort= only matches when sort comes right after the ?, so ?page=2&sort=price slips through. How to catch both forms, and when blocking parameters is worth it.
• Why does the tool warn me when I block the /assets/ folder, even though it holds no pages for visitors?Crawlers render pages much like a browser, so with stylesheets and scripts blocked they may see a broken page. How the builder spots it, and how Allow rules fix it.
• I have a test copy of my site on a subdomain. Is blocking it entirely in robots.txt enough? And what is the risk when it goes live?Disallow: / asks polite crawlers to stay away but hides nothing, and links can still surface in results. Use a password, and keep that file off the live site.
• I added a group just for Googlebot and now it ignores the rules in my general * group. Why?A crawler follows the one group that names it and drops the * group entirely, so groups do not stack. How the tester shows it, and how to copy shared rules across.
• My blog is on a subdomain like blog.mystore.com. Why do the rules in the main domain's robots.txt not apply to it?Crawlers look for robots.txt at the root of each host separately, so a subdomain reads its own file. How to build one for the blog, and why the tester ignores the domain.
• How do I write a robots.txt rule that blocks a folder whose name is in Arabic?Crawlers request Arabic paths percent-encoded, and the builder compares text exactly without decoding. Write the rule encoded and test it with a full URL.
• My orange brand colour fails as a text colour on white. How do I find the closest shade of it that passes without changing my brand?Brand orange #F7A21B gives only 2.07:1 on white. Here is how to find the closest shade that reaches 4.5:1 for text, while the original stays on shapes and backgrounds.
• My add-to-cart button is a reddish orange. Should the button text be white or black?On a #E4572E button white text gives only 3.68:1 while black gives 5.70:1. Test both, and if you want white, see how much darker the button needs to be.
• My big heading passes the check but body text in the same colour fails. What counts as large text, and is it different for Arabic fonts?Grey #8A8A8A gives 3.45:1 on white: it passes for large headings and fails for body text. The large text sizes, and why small Arabic text needs extra margin.
• The borders of the input boxes on my checkout form are very light grey. How do I check they are visible enough?Input borders in #E0E0E0 give only 1.32:1 on white. How the 3:1 UI components check works, how to find the lightest grey that passes, and why the page colour matters.
• My sale price is in bright red on white and looks very clear. Why does it fail the contrast check?Red #FF0000 on white gives 4.00:1 and fails for normal text, because contrast measures lightness, not vividness. A deeper red like #D32F2F gives 4.98:1.
• I have heard about APCA for measuring contrast. Should I use it instead of the WCAG 2 ratio this tool calculates?The tool calculates the WCAG 2 ratio, which the currently published guidelines use for their pass levels. APCA is a separate method, not part of WCAG 2.
• I added a dark mode to my site. Which greys and which brand colour can I use for text on the dark background?Brand colour #0F6B5F gives 6.39:1 on white and only 2.93:1 on #121212. Recheck every text colour for dark mode and get a lighter version of your brand colour that passes.
• The same grey passed on a white background but fails on my store's beige background. Why?#767676 gives 4.54:1 on white but only 4.00:1 on beige #F5F0E6. The ratio depends on both colours, so check text against your real background, not white.
• Customers say the hint text inside my order form fields is faded and hard to read. How do I pick a better colour for it?Placeholder text in #A9A9A9 gives only 2.35:1 on white. It is text and needs 4.5:1 like any other. How to find the nearest passing grey, and why the field fill matters.
• I put the offer text in white over a banner photo, and the tool does not check images. How can I make sure the text is readable?The tool compares two solid colours only, so pick the lightest spot behind the text and test white on it. If it fails, add a dark band and check white against its colour.