mmicrosoft.com

Lines that do not parse as a known directive: invalid_path.

Consequence. A crawler skips what it cannot parse, without reporting anything. A misspelled "Dissalow" leaves a path fully crawlable while the file appears to restrict it.

If that is not intended. Correct the spelling of each field name, and make sure every line follows "Field: value". Rules must also appear after a User-agent line to belong to a group.

• Path '*action=catalogsearch&' should start with '/'L20invalid_path
• Path '*/qa-folder' should start with '/'L41invalid_path
• Path '*action=catalogsearch&catalog_mode=grid&page=2$' should start with '/'L45invalid_path
• Path '*action=catalogsearch&catalog_mode=grid&page=3$' should start with '/'L46invalid_path
• Path '*action=catalogsearch&catalog_mode=grid&page=4$' should start with '/'L47invalid_path
• Path '*action=catalogsearch&catalog_mode=grid&page=5$' should start with '/'L48invalid_path
• Path '*action=catalogsearch&catalog_mode=grid&page=6$' should start with '/'L49invalid_path
• Path '*action=catalogsearch&catalog_mode=grid&page=7$' should start with '/'L50invalid_path
• Path '*action=catalogsearch&catalog_mode=grid&page=8$' should start with '/'L51invalid_path
• Path '*action=catalogsearch&catalog_mode=list&page=2$' should start with '/'L52invalid_path
• Path '*action=catalogsearch&catalog_mode=list&page=3$' should start with '/'L53invalid_path
• Path '*action=catalogsearch&catalog_mode=list&page=4$' should start with '/'L54invalid_path
• Path '*action=catalogsearch&catalog_mode=list&page=5$' should start with '/'L55invalid_path
• Path '*action=catalogsearch&catalog_mode=list&page=6$' should start with '/'L56invalid_path
• Path '*action=catalogsearch&catalog_mode=list&page=7$' should start with '/'L57invalid_path

A broader rule of the same type already covers these paths.

Consequence. These lines change nothing. They are harmless, but they add length to a file that has a size limit, and they make the real policy harder to read.

If that is not intended. Remove the redundant rules, or narrow the broader rule if it is catching more than intended.

• allow: /en/microsoft-365/business/microsoft-365-administrationL155Already covered by "allow: /en/microsoft-365/business" on line 160
• disallow: /windows/compatibility/windows-7/*L135Already covered by "disallow: /windows/compatibility/windows-7/" on line 134
• disallow: /en/microsoft-365/L143Already covered by "disallow: /en/microsoft-365" on line 142
• disallow: /es/microsoft-365/L165Already covered by "disallow: /es/microsoft-365" on line 164
• disallow: /fr/microsoft-365/L167Already covered by "disallow: /fr/microsoft-365" on line 166
• disallow: /en/security/L169Already covered by "disallow: /en/security" on line 168
• disallow: /es/security/L171Already covered by "disallow: /es/security" on line 170
• disallow: /fr/security/L173Already covered by "disallow: /fr/security" on line 172
• disallow: /en/microsoft-teams/L175Already covered by "disallow: /en/microsoft-teams" on line 174
• disallow: /es/microsoft-teams/L177Already covered by "disallow: /es/microsoft-teams" on line 176

The same directive and path appear repeatedly within one group.

Consequence. Duplicates have no effect on crawling, but they inflate the file toward the 500 KB limit and usually signal that the file is generated without dedup.

If that is not intended. Remove the repeats.

• disallow: /en-us/windows/si/matrix.htmlL10Already declared on line 9 for *
• disallow: /*/download/confirmation.aspx?L101Already declared on line 89 for *
• disallow: /en/microsoft-365/L163Already declared on line 143 for *

All 6 checked search engines are allowed at the site root.

All 4 checked AI answer engines are allowed at the site root.

All 3 checked user-triggered AI fetches are allowed at the site root.

All 5 checked social link previews are allowed at the site root.

All 6 checked AI training crawlers are allowed at the site root.

1 meta tag and 0 X-Robots-Tag headers, with no contradictions.

• <meta name="robots" content="index, follow">Page HTML

Every declared sitemap is an absolute URL and is crawlable.

• https://www.microsoft.com/store/sitemap-index.xmlL206
• https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/surface.index.xmlL207
• https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-index.xmlL208
• https://www.microsoft.com/sitemaps/ai/sitemapindex.xmlL209
• https://www.microsoft.com/sitemaps/dynamics-365/sitemapindex.xmlL210
• https://www.microsoft.com/sitemaps/isv/sitemapindex.xmlL211
• https://www.microsoft.com/sitemaps/microsoft-365/sitemapindex.xmlL212
• https://www.microsoft.com/sitemaps/microsoft-copilot/sitemapindex.xmlL213
• https://www.microsoft.com/sitemaps/microsoft-fabric/sitemapindex.xmlL214
• https://www.microsoft.com/sitemaps/microsoft-teams/sitemapindex.xmlL215

Comfortably within the 500 KB that crawlers will read.