Content type
The declared media type describing how a response body should be interpreted.
What Content type means
A correct header can accompany invalid content, and an incorrect header can hide a valid payload from parsers.
Where Content type comes up on this site
- How to audit an XML sitemap: status, content type, canonical URLs and stale entriesThen write tests at the generator boundary: no forbidden host, no non-canonical protocol, no duplicate <loc> , no excluded content type, XML that parses, child counts within limits, and a sample of output URLs that returns 200 and self-canonicalizes.
- Is Cloudflare blocking AI crawlers on your site? What changes on 15 September 2026How to check your own zone, in four requests curl -sI https://yoursite.com/robots.txt | grep -i 'content-type\|cf-cache-status\|age' Content type must be text/plain .
- How to check whether AI crawlers and agents can read your siteRead the content type, not the status code A robots.txt that answers 200 OK with a bot-challenge page is read as allow-everything by most crawlers, because a parser that receives HTML finds no directives, and no directives means no restrictions.
- How to rank in ChatGPT: the part that is actually in your controlThe ten-second version: fetch your robots.txt and read the content type , not the status.
- Do AI crawlers and agents respect robots.txt?Check the content type, not the status: it must be text/plain .
Definitions that name Content type
Related terms in HTTP, edge and rendering
The delivery layer between an origin and a client: proxies, caches, redirects, status codes and the headers that decide what a crawler actually received.
Origin server · Reverse proxy · CDN · Edge node · WAF · Bot score · TLS handshake · DNS resolution · DNS timeout · Connection timeout · Read timeout · Redirect chain · Redirect loop · 301 redirect · 302 redirect · 307 redirect · 308 redirect · 304 response · 404 response · 410 response · 429 response · 500 response · 502 response · 503 response · 504 response · HEAD request · GET request · MIME sniffing · Content encoding · Compression · Brotli · ETag · Last-Modified · If-None-Match · Cache hit · Cache miss · Cache key · Vary header · Stale response · Stale-while-revalidate · Edge redirect · Origin bypass · Response parity · Header parity · hreflang · canonical URL · HSTS · HSTS preload list · Content-Security-Policy · CSP nonce · edge cache · cache split · cache-buster · Cache-Control · Age header · render-blocking resource · payload text share · lazy loading · 404 and 410 status codes
Questions about Content type
What is Content type?
The declared media type describing how a response body should be interpreted.
Which area of the glossary does Content type belong to?
HTTP, edge and rendering: The delivery layer between an origin and a client: proxies, caches, redirects, status codes and the headers that decide what a crawler actually received.
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