Robots.txt Recruiter: Daily Mail Uses Robots.txt File To Find SEO

Malcolm Coles spotted that the Daily Mail, one of the UK’s largest papers, changed their robots.txt file to include a line which reads:

# August 12th, MailOnline are looking for a talented SEO Manager so if you found this then you’re the kind of techie we need!
# Send your CV to holly dot ward at mailonline dot co dot uk

How clever! They suspect some of the best SEOs out there would be sniffing around their robots.txt file and used it to recruit a new SEO manger. If anything, it is getting the word out there via the press that they are looking for a new SEO.

This reminds me of when Google added the User-agent: zombies Disallow: /brains to their robots.txt file on Halloween. Also, in 2006, Brett Tabke used his robots.txt file as his blog for a period of time.

I do not believe anyone every used it to hire an SEO before.