There are a number of different Robots Meta Tag directives that can be used, each with a different effect.
Some of the most common directives include:
- noindex: This directive tells search engines not to index a page. This means that the page will not appear in search results.
- nofollow: This directive tells search engines not to follow links on a page. This means that links on the page will not be counted towards the page's PageRank.
- noarchive: This directive tells search engines not to cache a page. This means that cached copies of the page will not be available in search results.
- nosnippet: This directive tells search engines not to show a snippet of the page in search results. This means that only the URL of the page will be shown in search results.
- indexifembedded: This directive tells search engines to index a page only if it is embedded on another page.
- max-snippet: This directive tells search engines how long a snippet of a page should be shown in search results.
- max-image-preview: This directive tells search engines how large an image preview should be shown for a page in search results.
- max-video-preview: This directive tells search engines how long a video preview should be shown for a page in search results.
- notranslate: This directive tells search engines not to translate a page.
- unavailable_after: This directive tells search engines to remove a page from the index after a certain date and time.
The noindex
and nofollow
directives are the most commonly used Robots Meta Tag directives. They can be used to prevent unwanted pages from being indexed or followed by search engines.
The other directives are less commonly used, but they can be useful in specific situations. For example, the nosnippet
directive can be used to prevent sensitive information from being shown in search results.
When using Robots Meta Tags, it is important to use them consistently across your entire website. This will help to ensure that search engines understand how you want your website to be crawled and indexed.
It is also important to keep your Robots Meta Tags up-to-date as your website changes. If you add or remove pages, or if you change the content of your pages, be sure to update your Robots Meta Tags accordingly.