Google's John Mueller Explains How to Keep JavaScript Popups Out of Search Using robots.txt
TLDR
Google's John Mueller explained how to stop website pop-up dialogs from showing in Google Search by using the robots.txt file, including for JavaScript-based pop-ups.
Optimixed Overview
Optimixed's original report on this story.
Google's John Mueller explained how site owners can keep pop-up dialogs from appearing in Google Search by using the robots.txt file, and he addressed the case where the pop-up is built with JavaScript, as first reported by SERoundtable.
How we got here: earlier coverage
- Nov 3Google's John Mueller Says Robots.txt Can Block Certain JavaScript Resources From Googlebot
Google's John Mueller said it is acceptable, in a specific use case, to use robots.txt to hide certain resources from Googlebot.
- Oct 31Google and Bing will honor a shared robots.txt signal to block AI training
Google and Bing said they will honor a shared robots.txt signal that blocks AI training, and a study put AI Overviews click-through at 0.9%.
- Oct 24Google Clarifies 503 Status Codes, Robots.txt Controls, and Bracket URL Handling
Google reiterates best practices for 503 status codes during downtime, robots.txt file controls, and bracket URL usage.
- Oct 22Google Explains What Robots.txt Does and Doesn't Control for AI Content Use
Google clarified that robots.txt controls whether content gets crawled, not how it gets used after crawling, and recommends percent-encoding non-English robots.txt paths.