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Early Access

Meta Tags

robots

Learn how to use the robots meta tag to improve your site.

Provides search engines with directives for indexing and following links on your webpage. It plays a crucial role in SEO strategy by helping control crawler access and behavior.

Parameters

index
Allows search engines to index the page. This is the default if no directive is specified.
<meta name="robots" content="index" />
noindex
Instructs search engines not to index the page. Useful for pages with sensitive or duplicate content.
<meta name="robots" content="noindex" />
follow
Instructs search engines to follow the links on the page. This is the default behavior if no directive is specified.
<meta name="robots" content="follow" />
nofollow
Instructs search engines not to follow any links on the page. Useful for pages that link to untrusted content.
<meta name="robots" content="nofollow" />
noarchive
Prevents a cached copy of the page from being made. Useful for content that changes frequently.
<meta name="robots" content="noarchive" />
nosnippet
Prevents a description from being shown in the search results. Useful for pages with sensitive information.
<meta name="robots" content="nosnippet" />
notranslate
Prevents automatic translation of the page in search results.
<meta name="robots" content="notranslate" />
noimageindex
Instructs search engines not to index images on the page. Useful for copyrighted images.
<meta name="robots" content="noimageindex" />
unavailable_after
Specifies a date/time after which the page should not be indexed. Format is W3C Datetime (e.g., "Saturday, 25-Mar-2023 15:00:00 GMT").
<meta name="robots" content="unavailable_after" />

Code Examples

<meta name="robots" content="index, follow" />
Instructs search engines to index the page and follow all its links. This is usually the desired default behavior.
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, follow" />
Prevents the page from being indexed while still allowing search engines to follow links to discover other pages.
<meta name="robots" content="index, nofollow" />
A less common scenario where a page is indexed, but links on the page do not contribute to search ranking, potentially missing out on valuable page authority.
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow" />
Tells search engines to neither index this page nor follow its links, isolating it from search results and potentially useful connections.

Recommendations

  • Combine Directives Strategically
    Use combinations wisely, like "noindex, follow" to prevent a page from being indexed while still passing on link equity to other pages.
  • Specify Unavailable After
    Use "unavailable_after" for time-sensitive content to automatically remove pages from the index after a certain date, rather than manually demarcating outdated content.

Related Documentation

Related Meta Tags

author

name

Specifies the name of the author of the document or webpage. This is used by search engines to understand authorship information, which can influence search rankings and visibility.

<meta name="author" content="Jane Doe">
Specifies a clear, straightforward author name, improving the document's credibility and aiding in content attribution.

charset

charset

Defines the character encoding standard for the HTML document. Character encoding is essential for rendering text correctly in browsers.

<meta charset="charset" content="UTF-8">
Declares UTF-8 as the character encoding for the HTML document, supporting most characters and symbols in use today.

description

name

Provides a brief and concise summary of a web page’s content. This summary is often used by search engines to display snippet previews in search results, influencing click-through rates.

<meta name="description" content="Learn how to bake delicious, moist cupcakes with our easy-to-follow guide. Featuring tips and tricks for beginners.">
A well-crafted description for a page about baking cupcakes, incorporating relevant keywords and staying within the recommended character limit.

google

name

This meta tag is utilized to specify how Google should interact with your site. Primarily, it's used to enable or disable Google's site translation feature on a per-page basis.

<meta name="google" content="notranslate">
Prevents automatic translation of the page, ensuring that content is presented as intended without potential misinterpretation through translation.

google-site-verification

name

Used for verifying ownership of a website within Google Search Console, a crucial step for accessing detailed reporting and configuring how Google interacts with your site.

<meta name="google-site-verification" content="your_verification_code">
Correctly places the verification code in the content attribute, verifying site ownership.