Meta Robots Tag Generator
Build a robots meta tag, with a warning on the combinations that backfire.
About this tool
Choose what you want search engines to do with a page and get the tag, with the max-snippet and max-image-preview directives if you need them.
One combination is worth calling out. noindex together with nofollow reads like "hide this page completely" and does something worse: the page is dropped, and because its links are not followed, anything reachable only through it is dropped too. A whole section can disappear from one tag on a single index page.
Paste URLs in the box to label the output, or leave it empty for a general tag.
Common questions
robots.txt or a noindex tag?
They do different things and are often confused. robots.txt stops a page being crawled; noindex stops it being indexed. Blocking a page in robots.txt means the noindex is never seen, so the page can stay in results indefinitely with no description.
Is noindex, nofollow a good default?
No, and it is the most common mistake with this tag. nofollow stops link discovery, so anything only linked from that page vanishes too. Use noindex alone unless you specifically want the links ignored.
What does index, follow do?
Nothing. It is the default behaviour, so the tag is pure noise. Only the negative directives change anything — if you want normal behaviour, omit the tag entirely.
How long until a page is removed?
It has to be crawled again first, which can take days or weeks. For something urgent use the removal tool in Search Console, then leave the noindex in place so it does not come back.