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Shopify robots.txt and sitemap basics

What Shopify generates for you, why editing robots.txt.liquid is an unsupported customization, and how to submit the automatic sitemap.

By Metryn · Updated 16 October 2026 · 4 min read

The good news for most Shopify stores is that the basics are handled. The less obvious news is that the most common way people break them is by editing the file Shopify already maintains.

robots.txt: the default is there for a reason

Shopify generates a default robots.txt for every store, at the root of your primary domain, and describes it as designed to support SEO. You can customize it by adding a robots.txt.liquid template to your theme, which lets you allow or block URLs, add crawl-delay rules, add sitemap URLs or block specific crawlers.

Shopify is unusually blunt about the risk. It labels this an unsupported customization, says Shopify Support can't help with edits, and warns that incorrect use "can result in loss of all traffic." It also recommends using Liquid to add or remove individual directives, because that keeps the file updated automatically, and strongly discourages replacing it with plain text, since those rules can go stale.

A practical rule: if you haven't got a specific reason to change the file, don't. If an old theme left a robots.txt.liquid behind that outputs outdated default rules, Shopify says deleting the template returns you to the current default.

The sitemap is automatic

Shopify says sitemap files are generated automatically and update when you add a page, product, collection, image or blog post. The sitemap lives at /sitemap.xml on each domain, and the main file links to separate child sitemaps for products, collections, blogs and pages.

That structure matters if you ever test your sitemap with a tool that only expects a flat list of URLs. A sitemap index is a different kind of file, with its own valid format, and a checker that treats it as a broken urlset is wrong, not your store.

After a theme change or a new app

Themes and apps are where defaults get overridden without anyone noticing. After you switch theme or install something that touches SEO, open /robots.txt and /sitemap.xml on your live domain and read them. You're looking for three things: a Disallow rule you didn't expect, a sitemap line that points to the wrong domain, and a leftover robots.txt.liquid template. Google also notes that some ecommerce platforms add structured data through an extension or plugin, so it's worth looking at what a product page's markup says after an app change.

Submit it once

Google says a sitemap is a hint and doesn't guarantee crawling or indexing, but submitting it still helps you see what it found. In Shopify's steps: verify your domain in Google Search Console, go to Indexing and Sitemaps, enter sitemap.xml and submit. Repeat for each international domain, since each domain has its own sitemap.

Questions people ask

Can I add my own rules to Shopify's robots.txt?

Yes, through a robots.txt.liquid template, which Shopify calls an unsupported customization. It recommends using Liquid to add or remove directives so the file stays updated automatically, and discourages replacing it with plain text.

What if I break it?

Shopify says that deleting the robots.txt.liquid template returns your store to the current default.

Does the sitemap include every page?

Shopify says it includes products, the primary product image, pages, collections and blog posts, in child sitemaps linked from the main file. What it includes isn't something you manually curate, so don't expect to remove a single URL by editing it.

Do I need to submit it?

Google says a sitemap is a hint and that many CMS platforms generate one. Submitting it in Search Console still lets you see what Google read.

What to do this week

  • Open /robots.txt and compare it with what you expect.
  • Open /sitemap.xml and click through to the products sitemap.
  • Submit sitemap.xml in Search Console.
  • Check no old robots.txt.liquid is overriding the default.

Check your own site

Paste your address below. The free scan looks at robots.txt, your sitemap, access for the main AI crawlers and structured data, and shows what it found in seconds. It tells you what a machine can fetch and read. It doesn't predict rankings or citations.

Free scan · No account needed · Results in seconds

Sources

Keep reading

Running a store? See Metryn for online stores for what the scan checks and the other guides written for store owners.

Want to check one file yourself? Try the free AI crawler robots.txt checker or the llms.txt validator, or read how the score is built.