Combining htaccess and robots.txt?

[Lady18]

Please forgive my ignorance - I'm a complete novice at this stuff.

I just put a .htaccess file in the root of my file manager - meaning it's not in any other folder/directory, including public_html. It's all stuff like
"RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^BlackWidow [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^Bot\ mailto:[e-mail] [OR]"
etc.

What I'd like to know is: Can I add stuff from a suggested robots.txt file, like
"Disallow: /mywebsite/cgi-bin/
Disallow: /mywebsite/style_images/", etc.
to my current .htaccess? Or do I need a separate robots.txt file?

Either way, both should be in the root - meaning outside of public_html, right?

I read [webmasterworld.com...] ... .

[Lady18]

...it's not in any other folder/directory, including public_html.

I'm sorry! My .htaccess is inside the public-html folder, but should it be?

[benevolent001]

Hello

.htaccess file and robotx should be kept separate

.htaccess file is for Apache Server
.htaccess file can be kept in any folder inside public_html or in that folder itself if you want to apply some rules to all folders inside public_html

if you want to apply some conditions in some specific folder only you can just move the htaccess file in that folder too

Robots.txt file tells the search engine to if you want to allow the website pages to be read by them? or are search engines allowed to ccess specific part of website

So you can see that both of the files have some specific functions and should be kept different

[Lady18]

Thanks much!

[Lady18]

Just one more question: You're saying it's ok to have the same identical .htaccess file in the public_html folder

and in

public_html >> my site's folder

Right?

[benevolent001]

htaccess rules are applicable to all the files and sub folders in the location in which it is present

So its better to keep the htaccess file in your mysite folder if you are hosting multiple website in same public_html folder

[Lady18]

Thanks much