What's new?

Bug fixes

• Fixed: The robots.txt checker could report a URL as ALLOWED while Google Search Console showed it blocked by robots.txt. The parser now follows how Google actually reads robots.txt (RFC 9309): consecutive User-agent lines grouped with only ignored directives between them (like Crawl-delay) stay in one group, so a trailing Disallow applies to the right crawler — including *. Thanks to Kevin Vandeplassche for flagging this on LinkedIn.
• Fixed: Rules that target query strings (e.g. Disallow: /*?, /*sid=, /*.php?) were never matched because we only checked the path. Matching now includes the query string, same as Google.
• Fixed: Wildcard patterns (* and $) and longest-match precedence were not applied correctly. Conflicting Allow and Disallow rules now resolve the way Google documents: longest match wins; on a tie, Allow beats Disallow.
• Fixed: Googlebot-specific groups were ignored when a generic * group existed. A dedicated Googlebot block can now override *, and an empty Googlebot group (crawl-delay only) correctly means crawlable even when * disallows everything.
• Fixed: A missing robots.txt (HTTP 404) was shown as “NOT FOUND” instead of treated as no restrictions. 404 and other 4xx responses (except 429) now correctly mean crawling is allowed; 429 and 5xx show an unavailable warning, matching Googlebot behavior.
• Fixed: Switching tabs or URLs quickly could leave the robots.txt status showing the previous page. A race guard ensures only the latest fetch updates the UI.
• Fixed: Network and unexpected errors were lumped together as “NOT FOUND”. CORS/DNS failures are now distinguished from server errors, and the copy-robots button no longer serves stale content from another page after an error.

Improvements

• Clearer status details — Blocked/allowed subtitles now show the HTTP status, which user-agent group matched (Googlebot, with fallback to *), and the specific rule that decided the verdict.
• Rules preview — The matched group’s Allow and Disallow lines are both shown, so an allowed path no longer looks blocked in the preview. Values are safely escaped in the UI.
• Sitemaps — Relative or malformed Sitemap: entries are no longer silently dropped. They appear with an orange warning and an RFC 9309 reference; valid absolute URLs still link through as before.
• AI bots section — Uses the same parsed robots.txt as the main checker (one parse, consistent results across the Page Info tab).
• Translations — New and corrected robots.txt status strings across all seven locales, including previously missing “not found” / “not accessible” labels and proper BLOCKED/ALLOWED wording in Spanish and Dutch.

Bug fixes

• Fixed: An issue with the X-Robots-Tag detection and display that was reported by Mathias Noyez from Depends SEO agency in Belgium. Thanks for the heads-up—we’ve corrected how the extension reads and surfaces the X-Robots-Tag HTTP header so it now reflects the actual indexability status as intended.

What’s new

• We’ve added an AI Robots Tag checker so you can see at a glance how the X-Robots-Tag (and related directives) affect indexing for the page you’re on. It sits alongside the existing meta robots and X-Robots status in the extension, giving you a clearer picture of how crawlers and AI systems are being instructed to treat the page.

Google made some changes in the SERP, breaking the People Also Asked extractor. Those are now fixed again.

What’s new

AI Insights

We’ve added a brand new AI Search Insights tab that reveals the hidden search queries that ChatGPT and Gemini generate when they’re answering your questions. Ever wondered what queries an AI chatbot uses when it searches the web for you?

Now you can see exactly what’s happening behind the curtain. The extension automatically extracts query fan-outs from both ChatGPT and Gemini, giving you unique insights into how AI models interpret questions and search for information.

(more…)

What’s new

• We’ve added two new tools to help you diagnose issues with JavaScript-heavy websites. First, you can now disable JavaScript entirely, because sometimes the best way to see what’s really happening is to see what happens when nothing happens.
  (more…)

Small bugfix while working on the next feature.

After a recent change in the SERP, there was an issue with the Core Web Vitals module in the SERP. This is now fixed, together with the status icons in the icon pin.

The extension was giving some glitches sometimes when interacting on Github, thanks Bjorn for reporting!

We all know that just creating content isn’t enough.

Content creation is only half the battle – the rest is gaining notice.

If you want traffic and conversion, you need to make sure your content looks as sexy outside your website as it does on it.

That means having the right OG:Image tags for example.

This release shows you the Open Graph tags and Twitter Cards on any page you’re on.

You might also have heard about Reddit’s growing importance in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

So, we’ve included an easy way to see if the current URL is already shared on any subreddit. Like this, you can jump right into the discussion if the link has already been submitted.

Otherwise, a “Submit this link” is provided for a link to the Reddit submission page.

And if you’re just starting out on your Reddit journey, this is also an excellent way to start building up some karma by submitting interesting content to the platform.

Web performance and SEO go hand in hand, but how much does it really matter for your keywords? With our latest update, you’ll uncover the connection between Core Web Vitals and your search rankings—directly on the Google results page.

Here’s what this update of the Sprout SEO Extension brings to the table:

• Inline Performance Scores: See real-time Core Web Vitals (LCP, CLS, and INP) for every result in the SERP, giving you a clear picture of how fast (or slow) the competition is.
• Correlation Metrics: Find out if top-ranked sites are also the fastest. The insights might just surprise you—and teach you how speed can give you the edge.
• Actionable Insights: Learn which performance metrics (like LCP or CLS) could help you climb higher in the rankings. Faster pages, better rankings? Let’s find out.

This update isn’t just another metric tracker—it’s your shortcut to understanding how web performance affects rankings and where you can outpace the competition.

Ready to optimize smarter, not harder? 🚀

P.S. We’ve also fixed some bugs related to the CSS that are sometimes injected into pages to display the extra content from this extension (Thanks, Julian Schleemann and Andrew Golubev, for reporting it).

It shouldn’t mess up your pages anymore.