Robots Meta Tag Builder
Build the exact robots meta tag your page needs — index/noindex, follow/nofollow, snippet limits, image previews, per-bot overrides and X-Robots-Tag header — with a live preview.
Your Page
Core directives
The two choices Google checks first — whether the page can be indexed and whether links are followed.
Snippet & media controls
Fine-tune what Google can show in search results — snippet length, image preview, video preview.
Per-bot overrides
Optional — target a specific crawler when you need different rules for Google, Bing or news bots.
Robots Output
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow" />X-Robots-Tag: index, followPlace the meta tag inside the <head> of the page. Use X-Robots-Tag as an HTTP response header for non-HTML resources (PDFs, images, JSON).
- okAll-clear configuration — this page is fully indexable with rich snippet support.
How to Use Robots Meta Tags
Four rules that stop 90% of noindex mistakes before they hit production.
Default is index, follow
Every public page should use index, follow — or simply omit the robots meta entirely. Only add noindex when you're certain the page should never appear in search.
noindex over robots.txt
To keep a page out of Google, use noindex in the meta tag — not Disallow in robots.txt. Blocked URLs can still appear without snippets; noindex actually removes them.
X-Robots-Tag for non-HTML
PDFs, images, JSON feeds and any non-HTML file can't carry a meta tag. Use the X-Robots-Tag HTTP header on those responses instead.
Stage restrictive rules carefully
Never deploy noindex across your whole site on staging unless you're 100% certain the build flag won't leak to production. A single misconfigured env can de-index a site in a day.
Robots Directive Reference
Every value Google honours, with the practical effect on search.
index / noindex
Whether the page can appear in Google search. noindex is the definitive way to remove a URL.
follow / nofollow
Whether links on the page pass ranking signals. nofollow tells Google not to crawl outbound links.
noarchive
Blocks Google's cached version link in SERPs. Mostly obsolete — Google removed the cache link in 2024.
nosnippet
No text snippet in search results. Also opts out of featured snippets and AI Overview extraction.
noimageindex
Stops images on the page from appearing in Google Images search.
max-snippet
Characters Google may show in the description snippet. Use 0 to hide, -1 for no limit.
max-image-preview
none / standard / large. Controls thumbnail size in Discover feed and image-enabled SERPs.
unavailable_after
Auto-removes the URL from the index after this date. Perfect for events, expiring offers and time-boxed landing pages.
When to Use Each Robots Preset
Common scenarios and which directives actually solve them.
Should be indexed
Use noindex
Use nofollow
Use unavailable_after
Robots Meta FAQ
noindex vs Disallow — which removes a URL?
noindex in the meta tag actually removes the URL from Google's index. Disallow in robots.txt only blocks crawling — the URL can still appear in SERPs without a snippet.
How long until Google respects noindex?
Usually within 1–7 days, once Google re-crawls the URL. For urgent removals, submit via Search Console's Removals tool as well.
Does my input go anywhere?
No. Everything runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded or stored.
Can I noindex a page that has backlinks?
You can, but those backlinks stop passing ranking signals once Google drops the URL. For signal consolidation, prefer canonical or 301 over noindex.
Need a Site-Wide Indexability Audit?
Our Australian SEO team audits every robots rule, canonical, sitemap and redirect — and flags pages accidentally blocked from Google.
- Per-page robots review
- Canonical + sitemap alignment
- No lock-in commitment
No long-term commitment. Cancel anytime. 100% satisfaction guaranteed.