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IndexingUpdated

Meta Robots

In short

The meta robots tag gives page-level crawler instructions about indexing and result presentation; it works only when a crawler can access the page.

A meta robots directive expresses decisions such as noindex, nofollow or snippet controls. It differs from robots.txt, which limits crawling, and from a canonical, which identifies a preferred duplicate URL.

The diagram shows the main inputs, checks and decision path for Meta Robots.

Practical implementation

Write the indexation policy first: define public URLs, accessible-but-excluded URLs, and duplicate treatment. Apply one consistent directive through the CMS or template and verify it on the final response. Use X-Robots-Tag for non-HTML assets such as PDFs.

What to verify

Inspect rendered markup, response headers and crawl allowance. Confirm the directive is on the intended canonical variant and not on required navigation or sitemap URLs. Recheck after deployment because cache and template conditions can alter output.

Common mistakes

Do not block a URL in robots.txt and expect its meta noindex to be seen. Do not use nofollow as a broad internal-link policy.

FAQ

A meta robots directive expresses decisions such as noindex, nofollow or snippet controls. It differs from robots.txt, which limits crawling, and from a canonical, which identifies a preferred duplicate URL.
Inspect rendered markup, response headers and crawl allowance. Confirm the directive is on the intended canonical variant and not on required navigation or sitemap URLs. Recheck after deployment because cache and template conditions can alter output.