diff --git a/backend/internal/api/handlers.go b/backend/internal/api/handlers.go
index 109109a..8300b2d 100644
--- a/backend/internal/api/handlers.go
+++ b/backend/internal/api/handlers.go
@@ -351,11 +351,12 @@ func randomHex(n int) (string, error) {
 // single block, disable that setting (Bots -> Managed robots.txt -> Off).
 func (s *Server) handleRobotsTXT(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
 	origin := s.sitemapOrigin(r)
-	body := "# allow crawling everywhere except admin, search, and internal api\n" +
+	body := "# allow crawling everywhere except admin, search, and admin api\n" +
 		"User-agent: *\n" +
 		"Disallow: /admin\n" +
 		"Disallow: /search\n" +
-		"Disallow: /api/\n" +
+		"Disallow: /api/admin/\n" +
+		"Allow: /api/\n" +
 		"Allow: /\n\n" +
 		"# Block AI training / scraping crawlers\n" +
 		"User-agent: Amazonbot\nDisallow: /\n" +
diff --git a/backend/internal/api/handlers_test.go b/backend/internal/api/handlers_test.go
index 1d353a6..cbf0319 100644
--- a/backend/internal/api/handlers_test.go
+++ b/backend/internal/api/handlers_test.go
@@ -1503,8 +1503,11 @@ func TestSitemapAndRobots(t *testing.T) {
 	if !strings.Contains(robotsBody, "Disallow: /search") {
 		t.Errorf("robots.txt missing Disallow: /search")
 	}
-	if !strings.Contains(robotsBody, "Disallow: /api/") {
-		t.Errorf("robots.txt missing Disallow: /api/")
+	if !strings.Contains(robotsBody, "Disallow: /api/admin/") {
+		t.Errorf("robots.txt missing Disallow: /api/admin/")
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(robotsBody, "Allow: /api/") {
+		t.Errorf("robots.txt missing Allow: /api/")
 	}
 }
 
@@ -1619,7 +1622,7 @@ func TestStaticFallbackRouting(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Errorf("GET / = %d, want 200", rec.Code)
 	}
 	body := rec.Body.String()
-	if !strings.Contains(body, `<link rel="preload" as="fetch" href="/api/news?page_size=16" crossorigin>`) {
+	if !strings.Contains(body, `<link rel="preload" as="fetch" href="/api/news?page=1&page_size=16" crossorigin>`) {
 		t.Errorf("GET / missing news API preload, got: %s", body)
 	}
 	if !strings.Contains(body, `<link rel="preload" as="fetch" href="/api/news/trending?window=week&limit=10" crossorigin>`) {
diff --git a/backend/internal/api/server.go b/backend/internal/api/server.go
index a2e7038..cd29498 100644
--- a/backend/internal/api/server.go
+++ b/backend/internal/api/server.go
@@ -333,6 +333,7 @@ func (s *Server) Handler() http.Handler {
 
 func (s *Server) writeJSON(w http.ResponseWriter, status int, v any) {
 	w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "application/json; charset=utf-8")
+	w.Header().Set("X-Robots-Tag", "noindex")
 	w.WriteHeader(status)
 	if err := json.NewEncoder(w).Encode(v); err != nil {
 		s.slog.Error("api: encode response", "error", err)
@@ -493,7 +494,7 @@ func (s *Server) serveIndexHTML(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
 	var preloadImage string
 
 	if cleanPath == "" || cleanPath == "index.html" {
-		extraPreloads.WriteString("\t\t<link rel=\"preload\" as=\"fetch\" href=\"/api/news?page_size=16\" crossorigin>\n")
+		extraPreloads.WriteString("\t\t<link rel=\"preload\" as=\"fetch\" href=\"/api/news?page=1&page_size=16\" crossorigin>\n")
 		extraPreloads.WriteString("\t\t<link rel=\"preload\" as=\"fetch\" href=\"/api/news/trending?window=week&limit=10\" crossorigin>\n")
 
 		homeTitle := "NeuralWire | AI News, Neural Networks & Future Computation"