Why are some pages in my Shopify store blocked by robots.txt files?

Technical Q&A

Topic summary

Shopify merchants report unexpected robots.txt rules blocking key URLs, seen in Google Search Console, with notable sales declines. Robots.txt is a file that tells search engines which pages not to crawl.

Key disallows cited (from the tester output):

  • /search
  • /collections/sort_by and other collection parameters (+, %2B, filter)
  • Core system paths: /admin, /cart, /checkout, /orders, /account
  • Shopify endpoints: /.well-known/shopify/monorail and /cdn/wpm/*.js

The original poster says they did not add these rules and plans to contact a Shopify expert. The robots.txt snippet is central to understanding the issue.

Several others report the same problem. One claims their site was wiped from Google due to “disallowed Javascript at checkouts,” suspecting Shopify’s “One Page Checkout” change. Others echo traffic and sales losses and ask if a fix exists or whether to migrate to WordPress.

No confirmed resolution or root cause is provided. The thread remains open, with unanswered questions about why these disallows appeared and how to restore indexing without harming site functionality.

Summarized with AI on December 17. AI used: gpt-5.
1

several robots.txt file disallows on a Shopify store

Hi We have several robots.txt file showing disallow on our Shopify Store, noted on the Google Search Console.
The disallow on some pages we are aware of as we dont want crawled. However we have
noted the ‘search’ and ‘collections’ blocked and have over past few months losing significant sales.

Here below a copy of what we are noting on the Google Search Console. Robots txt Tester Page

we use Shopify as our ecommerce platform

User-agent: *
Disallow: /admin
Disallow: /cart
Disallow: /orders
Disallow: /checkouts/
Disallow: /checkout
Disallow: /57831522404/checkouts
Disallow: /57831522404/orders
Disallow: /carts
Disallow: /account
Disallow: /collections/sort_by
Disallow: //collections/sort_by
Disallow: /collections/+*
Disallow: /collections/%2B
Disallow: /collections/%2b
Disallow: //collections/+*
Disallow: //collections/%2B*
Disallow: //collections/%2b*
Disallow: /collections/filter&filter
Disallow: /blogs/+*
Disallow: /blogs/%2B
Disallow: /blogs/%2b
Disallow: //blogs/+*
Disallow: //blogs/%2B*
Disallow: //blogs/%2b*
Disallow: /?oseid=
Disallow: /preview_theme_id
Disallow: /preview_script_id
Disallow: /policies/
Disallow: //?ls=&ls=
Disallow: //?ls%3D%3Fls%3D*
Disallow: //?ls%3d%3fls%3d*
Disallow: /search
Disallow: /apple-app-site-association
Disallow: /.well-known/shopify/monorail
Disallow: /cdn/wpm/*.js

Are these to be concerned over .
Any advice would be appreciated.
Regards

2

Thank you. We did not disallow , so I will reach out to a Shopify expert. Thank you.

3

How is this a solution!? This has happened to my store and my whole site has been WIPED from Google due to disallowed Javascript at checkouts which I have not done myself, had the run around from Shopify support, something has changed my code and I think its the ‘One Page Checkouts’ Shopify brought in, my whole sit has crashed! No one has anwers, Shopify experts MY ASS! I am furious

4 Likes
4

Hey! I have the same problem it’s definitely been created by Shopify, were you able to get a solve or swap to Wordpress?

5

i got this to, what is it about

6

Have you solve it? I have the same problem loosing a lot of money in sales