Meta Robots Tag Generator

A meta robots tag is an HTML meta element whose content lists crawler directives for that page only. It is separate from robots.txt, which is a file for the whole host. Index, follow, snippets, and image preview are the directives this form can combine.

The content attribute lists the directives you turned on. Index or noindex and follow or nofollow are always present. noarchive, nosnippet, and noimageindex are added only when you enable them. max-image-preview, max-snippet, and max-video-preview are included when those controls apply. This tag is not robots.txt. robots.txt is a host file. This tag is one page.

index or noindex is one of the values Meta Robots Tag Generator puts on screen. Whether the URL should be indexed. The choice is written into the content attribute. noindex on a page you want in search works against you.

Read follow or nofollow on its own before you mix it with the other rows. Whether links on the page should be followed. It is independent of index. nofollow does not remove the page from the index.

nosnippet answers a narrower question than the headline number. A request to show no text snippet. It is added only when you enable it. When it is on, max-snippet is left out.

Treat noimageindex as a label with a specific job. A request not to index the images on the page. It is optional. When it is on, max-image-preview is left out.

The max-image-preview line is worth a full stop. How large an image preview may be. The form can write large or another value. It is skipped when noimageindex is on.

Paste the tag into the head of the page it describes. The form does not change the live page. noindex means you do not want that URL in the index. Use it for a thin or duplicate URL you still need online. Do not noindex a page and also expect it to rank.

If you remember one sequence from Meta Robots Tag Generator, remember the fields in the order they change a decision. index or noindex matters because Whether the URL should be indexed. In practice, The choice is written into the content attribute. The mistake to avoid is this: noindex on a page you want in search works against you. follow or nofollow matters because Whether links on the page should be followed. In practice, It is independent of index. The mistake to avoid is this: nofollow does not remove the page from the index. nosnippet matters because A request to show no text snippet. In practice, It is added only when you enable it. The mistake to avoid is this: When it is on, max-snippet is left out. noimageindex matters because A request not to index the images on the page. In practice, It is optional. The mistake to avoid is this: When it is on, max-image-preview is left out. max-image-preview matters because How large an image preview may be. In practice, The form can write large or another value. The mistake to avoid is this: It is skipped when noimageindex is on. After that, the checks are simple. index versus noindex matches the page’s purpose. The tag will go in that page’s head, not in a global template by accident. nosnippet and noimageindex were enabled only on purpose. This was not used as a substitute for robots.txt. The copied tag was read before it was pasted.

The worked example for Meta Robots Tag Generator, read as one scene, is this. Choose noindex and follow, and leave the optional limits off. The tag is meta name robots content noindex, follow. Copy it into a thank-you page you do not want indexed. Choose index, follow, and nosnippet. The content includes nosnippet and does not add max-snippet. The page can be indexed without a text snippet.

Final notes for Meta Robots Tag Generator, written as decisions rather than as a table. When index or noindex is in front of you, decide using this: Whether the URL should be indexed. noindex on a page you want in search works against you. When follow or nofollow is in front of you, decide using this: Whether links on the page should be followed. nofollow does not remove the page from the index. When nosnippet is in front of you, decide using this: A request to show no text snippet. When it is on, max-snippet is left out. When noimageindex is in front of you, decide using this: A request not to index the images on the page. When it is on, max-image-preview is left out. When max-image-preview is in front of you, decide using this: How large an image preview may be. It is skipped when noimageindex is on. Then apply the checks without skipping one. index versus noindex matches the page’s purpose. The tag will go in that page’s head, not in a global template by accident. nosnippet and noimageindex were enabled only on purpose. This was not used as a substitute for robots.txt. The copied tag was read before it was pasted.

Keep Meta Robots Tag Generator as this step only. When the job moves on, the Robots.txt Generator is the next page: Robots.txt Generator builds a robots.txt file from an allow or disallow default, optional paths, a crawl delay, and a sitemap URL. The Robots.txt Tester covers a different piece of the same work: Robots.txt Tester compares a robots.txt paste with a URL and a user-agent such as Googlebot or Bingbot.