Meta Robots Tag

The meta robots tag is an HTML snippet used to control how search engines index and follow a webpage. It helps manage SEO visibility directly from a page’s code.

Meta Robots Tag

The meta robots tag is an HTML tag placed in the <head> section of a webpage. It tells search engine crawlers how to treat the page — whether to index it, follow the links on it, or ignore it entirely.

This tag gives website owners more control over their SEO strategy, especially when they want to prevent certain pages from appearing in search results or passing link equity.

Common meta robots directives

Here are the most frequently used values you can assign in a meta robots tag:

DirectiveWhat It Does
indexAllows the page to be indexed in search results (default)
noindexPrevents the page from appearing in search results
followAllows search engines to follow links on the page (default)
nofollowPrevents search engines from following any links on the page
noarchivePrevents search engines from showing a cached version
nosnippetPrevents showing a snippet or preview in search results

You can combine multiple directives for more specific control, such as noindex, nofollow.

HTML example of a meta robots tag

<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">

This tells search engines not to index the page and not to follow any links on it.

When to use the meta robots tag

You might use the meta robots tag in cases like:

  • Thank you pages or confirmation screens you don’t want indexed
  • Login or admin pages that should stay private
  • Duplicate content pages to avoid SEO issues
  • Outdated pages you don’t want appearing in search results
  • Low-value pages like printer-friendly versions or filter URLs

Best practices for using meta robots tags

  • Place the tag in the <head> section of your HTML
  • Use noindex sparingly — only on pages you truly don’t want shown
  • Avoid nofollow on internal pages unless absolutely necessary
  • Check your robots tag settings in SEO audits to avoid accidental blocking
  • Combine with robots.txt and canonical tags for complete control

In summary, the meta robots tag is a useful SEO tool for managing how search engines interact with specific pages on your site. By using it correctly, you can protect sensitive pages, prevent duplicate content issues, and ensure search engines focus on your most important content.

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