diff --git a/.github/workflows/docs-release.yaml b/.github/workflows/docs-release.yaml
index d8c16098fea..90b00c6f339 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/docs-release.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/docs-release.yaml
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ jobs:
- name: Build release
working-directory: docs
- run: bundle exec jekyll build --config _config.yml -d _site/${{ steps.version.outputs.tag }} -b /${{ steps.version.outputs.tag }}
+ run: bundle exec jekyll build --config _config.yml,_config.version.yml -d _site/${{ steps.version.outputs.tag }} -b /${{ steps.version.outputs.tag }}
- name: Remove robots.txt
working-directory: docs/_site/${{ steps.version.outputs.tag }}
diff --git a/docs/_config.version.yml b/docs/_config.version.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..2a172306aff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/_config.version.yml
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+robots_exclude_from_indexes: true
diff --git a/docs/_includes/head_custom.html b/docs/_includes/head_custom.html
index 53697c54627..e63bd2134f8 100644
--- a/docs/_includes/head_custom.html
+++ b/docs/_includes/head_custom.html
@@ -6,6 +6,9 @@
'https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);
})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-KTZBZW9');
+{% if site.robots_exclude_from_indexes %}
+
+{% endif %}
diff --git a/docs/robots.txt b/docs/robots.txt
index 29c5cff9073..d0304c7231c 100644
--- a/docs/robots.txt
+++ b/docs/robots.txt
@@ -3,4 +3,8 @@ layout: null
sitemap: false
---
User-agent: *
+# blocking older versions of the API.
+# note: this prevents direct indexing and access, but these pages are still available via refs from other sites.
+Disallow: /v0.*
+Disallow: /v1.*
Sitemap: {{ site.url }}{{ site.baseurl }}/sitemap.xml