Members of Google’s Search Relations team recently talked about web standards on their Search Off the Record podcast. Martin Splitt and Gary Illyes explained how these standards come to be and why they’re important for getting your website to show up in Google search. Their chat gave some helpful insights into how Google makes decisions that impact how websites should be built and optimized.
Why Some Web Protocols Become Standards While Others Don’t
Google officially made robots.txt a standard by working with a group called the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). But they didn’t do the same for the sitemap protocol—it remains an informal guideline.
This shows how Google decides which rules need to be made official.
During the podcast, Gary Illyes explained:
“With robots.txt, there was a benefit because we knew that different parsers tend to parse robots.txt files differently… With sitemap, it’s like ‘eh’… it’s a simple XML file, and there’s not that much that can go wrong with it.”
This statement from Illyes reveals something important about Google’s priorities: protocols that cause confusion or inconsistencies across platforms are more likely to be standardized. If a system works smoothly without formal rules—like sitemaps—Google sees no urgent need to make it official.
In short, Google focuses its efforts where structure is most needed, rather than formalizing everything.
The Benefits of Protocol Standardization for SEO
Standardizing the robots.txt protocol has led to several clear advantages for SEO:
- Consistent behavior: Search engines and crawlers now interpret robots.txt files more reliably.
- Open-source tools: “It allowed us to open source our robots.txt parser and then people start building on it,” Illyes shared.
- Simplified usage: Illyes also noted that standardization reduces the burden on site owners trying to figure out how to write these files.
These improvements make technical SEO easier and more efficient, especially for those handling large websites.
Inside the Web Standards Process
The podcast also shed light on how web standards come to life.
Groups like the IETF, W3C, and WHATWG follow open and collaborative processes that can take years to finalize. This slower timeline helps ensure standards are secure, clearly written, and widely compatible.
Illyes explained:
“You have to show that the thing you are working on actually works. There’s tons of iteration going on and it makes the process very slow—but for a good reason.”
Both Google engineers highlighted that anyone can take part in these standards processes. This opens the door for SEO professionals to contribute and help shape the very protocols they rely on every day.
Security Considerations in Web Standards
Web standards also take security into account. For example, when Google helped develop the robots.txt standard, they added a 500-kilobyte limit to help prevent possible abuse or attacks.
Illyes explained:
“When I’m reading a draft, I would look at how I would exploit stuff that the standard is describing.”
This shows how web standards help create clear security limits, protecting both websites and the systems that access them.
Why This Matters
For SEO professionals, this offers several clear takeaways:
- Be precise when writing robots.txt rules—Google treats this file seriously due to its standardization.
- Use Google’s open-source robots.txt parser to validate your file and avoid errors.
- Keep in mind that sitemaps are less strictly standardized, which gives you more flexibility but may lead to inconsistencies.
- If you’re passionate about the web’s future, consider contributing to standards groups—you can help shape the tools and protocols you use every day.
Understanding the thought process behind web protocols helps SEOs make smarter, more effective decisions. Even simple technical files like robots.txt involve careful design choices around security, clarity, and compatibility—all of which directly affect how well your site performs in search.
