Fix : Googlebot cannot access CSS and JS files [WNC-658001]

/ / 13 Comments

Overview: For the last some days many bloggers, website owners are getting an alert warning message from google webmaster that Googlebot cannot access CSS and JS files on YourSitename.  This new warning send by both as an email and as an alert to your webmaster (Google search Console).


Google systems have recently detected an issue with your homepage that affects how well our algorithms render and index your content. Specifically, Googlebot cannot access your JavaScript and/or CSS files because of restrictions in your robots.txt file. These files help Google understand that your website works properly so blocking access to these assets can result in suboptimal rankings.

Check below Screenshot same I received from Google:

Fig 1

Googlebot cannot access CSS and JS files [WNC-658001] email from google


Then I checked PageSpeed Insights:

From Google PageSpeed Insights I got this message that This page may not pass `Google's Mobile-Friendly Test`. This might be because Google has updated his algorithm so Googlebot is not able to access CSS and JS files for my website.

Fig 2Google Page insight gives error


Then I checked for Mobile-friendly:

Sad to know that both show the same warning message that it is not mobile friendly. As this may affect on-page ranking so I have to solve this as soon as possible.

google bot not access CSS and JS file , check robots.txt  

How to fix this error .i.e Making Googlebot access CSS and JS files.

Go and check your Robots.txt file. You need to edit your robots.txt file. This error occurs due to blocking in the robots.txt file.

Previously this how my Robots.txt look:

User-agent: * Disallow: /wp-admin/ Disallow: /wp-includes/ Disallow: /wp-content/plugins/ Disallow: /wp-content/themes/

 

Method 1:- I just change the permission set to allow property for` plugin` and `themes` and this solves my problem.

My final robots.txt look like

User-agent: * Disallow: /wp-admin/ Disallow: /wp-includes/ allow: /wp-content/plugins/ allow: /wp-content/themes/


Method 2:- Here we just give permission for Googlebot and disallow for the others user agents. Using Method 2 issue will be fixed only for GoogleBot. If in future Bing / Yahoo other bots also throw the same error then just apply method 1
#Googlebot User-agent: Googlebot Allow: *.css Allow: *.js # Other bot spider User-agent: * Disallow: /wp-admin/ Disallow: /wp-includes/

After editing my Robots.txt file I again went to check the Mobile-Friendly test. Here is the result. Mobile Friendly get, Googblebot able to access CSS and JS file

Finally  Happy to get it back :) Hope you all have also solved this issue.

Thank you for reading, pls keep visiting this blog and share this in your network. Also, I would love to hear your opinions down in the comments.

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13 Comments

  1. Roheet 07/28/2015 20:51:09
    Hi satinder, Easy steps very helpful, I have tried the things and its worked but for this particular url -http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js its still blocking the script, Any suggestion on this how to fix. Thanks
  2. Matt 07/28/2015 23:57:33
    I have the same issue, funny how Google can't see its own Adsense ad. Not sure how to fix this or if it really needs to be fixed?
  3. Kelly 07/29/2015 08:35:17
    How do you edit the default robots.txt file from Wordpress?
  4. Satinder singh 07/29/2015 09:14:35
    @kelly: I have logged into ControlPanel and edited my Robots.txt file. Then from Google Webmaster I checked for robots.txt file whether is updated or not. As I have added w3total cache plugin in my website, so by empty all cache its solved the issue. Checked on Google Webmaster with Robots.txt tester it shows updated version of your file
  5. Satinder singh 07/29/2015 09:17:22
    @Roheet: This might be coz of your Robots.txt file permission. May I have your website link, by looking at your Robots.txt fill only i can get some idea of it
  6. Roheet 07/29/2015 13:17:38
    please check above url. Thanks
  7. Craig Riley 07/29/2015 13:26:54
    Hi Please can you have a look at my robots and let me know if I have sorted it. Thanks
  8. Jenny 07/30/2015 14:23:14
    To day I go to Google Webmaster Tool and I got this message: Googlebot cannot access CSS and JS files on http://leafmulcherhq.com/ I fixed by adding this code to robots.txt Allow: *.css Allow: *.js ==> Then I check GWT but the I just see the same message. Please tell me how long this issuse is resolved. Thank you.
  9. Satinder singh 07/30/2015 16:57:45
    Hi jenny, I just checked robots.txt file of leafmulcherhq.com and I didn't find `Allow: *.css Allow: *.js` on it. How you have updated your Robots.txt file ?? Also, if you have installed any cache plugin then do Empty Cache and check on GWT. This will sure solve it.
  10. sreeni 08/25/2015 10:36:38
    Hi very informative article, i too got the message from google that 16 urls are blocked and need to unblock the resources. so when i seen the error i found it is blocking from wp-admin. now my question is can i allow wp-admin for google and keep disallow wp-admin for other search bots. can you suggest me what to do . if i allow wp-admin there will be any secuity issues about my website . need your suggestion
  11. Satinder singh 08/25/2015 12:39:29
    Hi sreeni, In robots.txt allowing to wp-admin is not good practise, as this helps to bad bots. But you can add this piece in your robots.txt to overcome with this issue User-agent: * Disallow: /wp-admin/ User-agent: Googlebot Allow: /* .js* Allow: /* .css*
  12. Amudhakumar 10/04/2015 16:49:14
    Hi bro, thanks for sharing these methods. I too received the same message from Google for my Blog. However, I got it fixed in couple of days. Anyway thanks for sharing it.
  13. Larry 03/08/2017 14:10:15
    Is there an option in wordpress to allow or deny access to robots.txt? Because I'm getting “Google can't find your site's robots.txt” in GWP. I think that a plugin that was recently installed may have caused this but I am unable to identify which one.