Yoast SEO doesn't create or store the robots.txt file itself. The file physically sits in your WordPress installation's root directory (same level as wp-config.php), and Yoast simply gives you a way to edit it without using FTP or your hosting file manager. To access it through Yoast, go to SEO (in your WordPress admin sidebar) > Tools > File Editor. You'll see tabs for both robots.txt and .htaccess. If you don't see a robots.txt tab, it means WordPress is generating a virtual robots.txt file on the fly, and you need to create a physical one first. You can do this by creating a blank text file named robots.txt and uploading it to your root directory via FTP, or by using your hosting control panel's file manager. Once the physical file exists, Yoast's editor lets you add directives like disallowing specific URLs, setting crawl delays, or pointing to your XML sitemap. Most WordPress sites only need basic entries: - User-agent: * - Disallow: /wp-admin/ - Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php - Sitemap: https://yoursite.com/sitemap_index.xml At Ottawa SEO, we typically bypass Yoast's editor for robots.txt on client sites with complex crawl rules or multiple sitemaps. Direct file access gives you more control and avoids potential conflicts if Yoast updates break the editor interface. We've seen cases where the File Editor tab disappears after certain plugin conflicts or if file permissions are restricted by the host. One critical point: editing robots.txt through any interface requires your WordPress file permissions to allow write access. If your host has locked down the root directory for security, Yoast's editor won't work and you'll get a permissions error. In that case, you're back to FTP or asking your host to adjust permissions temporarily. Always test changes with Google Search Console's robots.txt tester to catch syntax errors before they block important pages from indexing.