Robots Meta Tag
The SEO robots meta tag, also known as the meta robots tag, is an HTML element used to provide instructions to search engine crawlers about how to interact with a specific web page. It helps control the indexing and crawling behavior of search engine bots, influencing how the page is displayed in search results. The robots meta tag is placed within the <head> section of the HTML code.
Here are the most commonly used directives in the robots meta tag:
1. Indexing Directives:
- Index:
<meta name="robots" content="index">- Instructs search engines to include the page in their index and display it in search results. - Noindex:
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">- Instructs search engines not to include the page in their index and exclude it from search results.
2. Follow Directives:
- Follow:
<meta name="robots" content="follow">- Instructs search engines to follow the links on the page and crawl them. - Nofollow:
<meta name="robots" content="nofollow">- Instructs search engines not to follow the links on the page.
3. Combined Directives:
- Index, Follow:
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow">- Instructs search engines to index the page and follow its links. - Noindex, Nofollow:
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">- Instructs search engines not to index the page and not to follow its links.
It's important to note that search engines may still discover and crawl a page even if the robots meta tag is present, especially if there are external links pointing to that page. However, the tag provides a clear directive to search engines on how to handle the page and can help prevent indexing or crawling issues.
Additionally, it's worth mentioning that the robots meta tag is just one method to control search engine crawling and indexing behavior. Search engines may also consider other factors such as robots.txt files and the presence of nofollow attributes on individual links.
When using the robots meta tag, it's important to carefully consider the instructions and ensure they align with your SEO objectives and the specific requirements of each page on your website.
