Does every site need a robots.txt?

I have one, but I'm not sure I need it

[MatthewHSE]

I'm currently using a robots.txt file, and it validates. But I think I may be inadvertantly keeping Google out of some of my directories that I really wish they would crawl. I'm now wondering if I even need a robots.txt.

I think the crux of the matter is, how do robots crawl pages? Meaning, do they somehow automatically grab all the pages in a directory? Or can they only get those pages that are directly linked to from another page?

Also important for my site is how the robots handle .cgi pages that require login.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks,

Matthew

[Brett_Tabke]

Robots.txt is used only to BLOCK crawlers. Your private stuff should be protected with ssl any way, so there is not alot of need for a robots.txt these days.

>how do bots crawl

They follow links - that's it.