diff --git a/core/server/middleware/index.js b/core/server/middleware/index.js
index 622b3460ad..37628d5ed7 100644
--- a/core/server/middleware/index.js
+++ b/core/server/middleware/index.js
@@ -206,7 +206,7 @@ function serveSharedFile(file, type, maxAge) {
         filePath = path.join(config.paths.corePath, 'shared', file);
 
     return function serveSharedFile(req, res, next) {
-        if (req.url === path.join('/', file)) {
+        if (req.url === '/' + file) {
             if (content) {
                 res.writeHead(200, content.headers);
                 res.end(content.body);
@@ -290,7 +290,7 @@ setupMiddleware = function (blogAppInstance, adminApp) {
     blogApp.use(middleware.staticTheme());
 
     // Serve robots.txt if not found in theme
-    blogApp.use(serveSharedFile('robots.txt', 'text/plain', utils.ONE_YEAR_S));
+    blogApp.use(serveSharedFile('robots.txt', 'text/plain', utils.ONE_HOUR_S));
 
     // Add in all trailing slashes, properly include the subdir path
     // in the redirect.
diff --git a/core/test/functional/routes/frontend_test.js b/core/test/functional/routes/frontend_test.js
index 9a2a868816..2a1122d382 100644
--- a/core/test/functional/routes/frontend_test.js
+++ b/core/test/functional/routes/frontend_test.js
@@ -452,7 +452,7 @@ describe('Frontend Routing', function () {
 
         it('should retrieve default robots.txt', function (done) {
             request.get('/robots.txt')
-                .expect('Cache-Control', testUtils.cacheRules.year)
+                .expect('Cache-Control', testUtils.cacheRules.hour)
                 .expect('ETag', /[0-9a-f]{32}/i)
                 .expect(200)
                 .end(doEnd(done));