Google Bot cannot access CSS and JS files
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- Doreen
- Hero Rocketeer
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- I just got hit with a bunch of messages regarding my clients' websites that Google Bot can't access the CSS and JS files. Now this has never been an issue before and they do have a "fix" for me to follow (changes to the robots.txt file), but before I do so has anyone else got such messages? And are they legit? Please advise. Thanks! Doreen
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- Edwin Akpan
- Rocketeer
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Yeah. Just got the same email.
Incidentally, it's only for website I built with Joomla.
I'm gonna take a look later and follow their instructions.
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- 1221
- Sr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 181
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I am having the same issue.
I deleted my robot.txt file and renamed the robot.txt.dist to replace it. (This needs to be done manually, the Joomla update only adds the .dist file) This helped with some of the blocks, but I still have some remaining that relate to Rokbox,RokNavMenu & Gantry. See attached screen shot.
website: 1221creative.com
Joomla 3.4.3 - Last Edit: 9 years 9 months ago by 1221.
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- Deb Williams
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 820
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Yes, I got several of these emails as well all regarding Rockettheme Joomla sites.
Here's an article I found that discusses this notice:
searchengineland.com/google-search-conso...avascript-css-226227
This comment after the article seemed to make the most sense. Does anyone know about this?
"As I understand the issue, Google only has a problem with blocked CSS/JS if this negatively impacts the rendering of the page on mobile. It would be good if they clarify this in the email they are sending. It would prevent us banging our heads against internal teams who have chosen to block certain files, i.e. for legal reasons."
I do see in the Rockettheme Joomlas sites that the Template folder is disallowed in the robots.txt file and that folder does contain the CSS and JS files. However, I don't want to change that if it's not necessary - especially if Rockttheme has a good reason for doing that.
Any insight from Rockettheme on this would be appreciated. - Last Edit: 9 years 9 months ago by Deb Williams. Reason: typo
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- 1221
- Sr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 181
- Thanks: 0
- Deb - If you change the robot.txt file it will take care of that part. One of the last Joomla 3 updates adds a file called robot.txt.dist I'm not sure why, but you need to manually replace robot.txt file with that one.
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- Deb Williams
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 820
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- Thanks, yes, that worked. It would still be good to know more about this. If you happen to hear more info, I'd appreciate knowing.
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- Duane Mitchell
- Hero Rocketeer
- Posts: 296
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- Technology consultant
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Apparently the fix that is working is:
Paste this at the bottom of the robots.txt file.User-Agent: Googlebot Allow: /*.js* Allow: /*.css*
According to a discussion in the Joomla SEO forum. -
The following users have thanked you: Laurie McArthur
- Next Generation Solutions | www.nxgnsol.com | 617-539-6050
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- Duane Mitchell
- Hero Rocketeer
- Posts: 296
- Thanks: 5
- Technology consultant
- If I understand this it doesn't really have much to do with the updated robots.txt file distributed by Joomla. I think there's only a one line difference between old and new. It's more to do with the extensions you use and Google. They now want to validate sites for responsiveness and mobile features. Specifically, they want to get into extensions directories they didn't want to in the past.
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- Next Generation Solutions | www.nxgnsol.com | 617-539-6050
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