Nike is a sports brand we all know. Beyond its reputation for quality, it’s also famous for its razor-sharp marketing. Even in places where you least expect it, Nike manages to surprise you.
First things first: what is a robots.txt?
There are two ways to explain robots.txt: technical and non-technical. Google reads your website using so-called ‘crawlers’ — little robots that scour the internet in search of websites and information. When a robot lands on a website, it reads and evaluates the content.
When a robot visits your website, you naturally want it to read the right pages. That’s where a robots.txt file comes in. This file essentially contains the rules the robot must follow when reading your website, giving you control over where Google goes on your site.
At its core, it looks pretty dull – but then again, it doesn’t need to look flashy, since it’s not meant to be read by humans. And yet, Nike did something clever with it.
Nike’s robots.txt
You know Nike from their slogan: “Just do it!” In their robots.txt, they bring this back in an original way.
At the top of the robots.txt you’ll find the brilliant words: “just crawl it” — an unmistakable nod to Nike’s iconic slogan. And at the bottom of the page, Nike’s logo is reproduced using nothing but text characters.
In doing so, Nike has turned something purely technical — something not meant to be read by humans at all — into a clever marketing statement.
Want to see it for yourself? Visit Nike’s robots.txt at: nike.com/robots.txt
Key takeaways
Take a look at your own robots.txt: is it still up to date? Is it optimised? And how could you do something creative with it?
It’s a small but effective way to give a knowing wink to the specialists who find their way to your website.