Rules name a sensitive location made specific by a qualifier or by where it sits, or a spreadsheet by its full path.
Consequence. A bare "/backup" is in every scanner wordlist; "/backup-2023/" is in none. Listing it advertises the location to the readers least likely to honour the rule.
If that is not intended. Put these locations behind authentication or remove them; once they are protected, the line can stay or go. Responses behind authentication are not indexed, so they need no "noindex". Content that is public by design and only has to stay out of search wants a "noindex" without the Disallow: a crawler only sees a noindex on a page it may fetch.
Disallow: /feed/privateL16"private" below the first level
Notice
1 rule can never take effect
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: /subscribeL27Already covered by "allow: /" on line 26
Info
1 rule suggests sensitive files may exist
Wildcard patterns name no location, but suggest such files may exist under public paths.
Consequence. A pattern such as "/*.sql$" discloses nothing a reader can request directly. It does say what kind of file the site expects to have lying around.
If that is not intended. Verify that files matching these patterns are not served.
Disallow: /feed/podcast/*/private/*.rssL17"private" below the first level
Pass
Search engines can reach the site
All 6 checked search engines are allowed at the site root.
Pass
AI answer engines can reach the site
All 4 checked AI answer engines are allowed at the site root.
Pass
User-triggered AI fetches can reach the site
All 3 checked user-triggered AI fetches are allowed at the site root.
Pass
Social link previews can reach the site
All 5 checked social link previews are allowed at the site root.
Pass
AI training crawlers can reach the site
All 6 checked AI training crawlers are allowed at the site root.
Pass
No indexing directives on the requested page
The page sends no robots meta tag and no X-Robots-Tag header.
Pass
2 sitemaps declared
Every declared sitemap is an absolute URL and is crawlable.
https://substack.com/sitemap.xmlL30
https://substack.com/news_sitemap.xmlL31
Pass
No syntax problems
Every line parses as a directive crawlers understand.
Pass
File size is 585 bytes
Comfortably within the 500 KB that crawlers will read.
