Robots Meta Tag Generator (noindex, nofollow)
Build a correct robots meta tag with the exact index, follow, and archive directives you need.
How it works
- 1
Choose a target
Apply the directives to all crawlers, or target Googlebot or Bingbot specifically.
- 2
Set indexing and link following
Choose index or noindex, and follow or nofollow, independently of each other.
- 3
Add any additional directives needed
Toggle noarchive, nosnippet, noimageindex, or notranslate as needed, plus fine grained snippet and preview length controls.
- 4
Copy the meta tag or header
Both the HTML meta tag and its equivalent X-Robots-Tag HTTP header are generated together, copy whichever fits how you're deploying it.
About the Robots Meta Tag Generator (noindex, nofollow)
A robots meta tag with the wrong combination of directives can silently deindex a page nobody meant to hide, or leave a page indexed when it genuinely shouldn't be, and the syntax, a single content attribute holding a comma separated list of specific directive keywords, is easy to get subtly wrong by hand. This tool builds a correct robots meta tag from a clear set of options, and generates its equivalent X-Robots-Tag HTTP header at the same time, since the same directives can be applied either way depending on the situation.
Index and follow, the two foundational directives
Index and follow are both the default behavior already, a page with no robots meta tag at all is treated exactly as if it explicitly said index, follow. Noindex tells search engines not to include this specific page in search results, while still allowing them to crawl it and follow its links to discover other pages, unless nofollow is also specified. Nofollow tells search engines not to pass ranking signals through this page's outbound links, independent of whether the page itself is indexed. These two directives are genuinely independent of each other, a page can be noindex and still follow its links, useful for a page you don't want appearing in search results but still want crawled for link discovery purposes.
The lesser known additional directives
Beyond the two core directives, several more control specific presentation behavior in search results. Noarchive prevents a search engine from showing a cached version of the page. Nosnippet prevents a text or video snippet from being shown in search results at all, useful for pages where you'd rather someone click through than read a preview. Noimageindex prevents images on the page specifically from being indexed, while the page's text content is unaffected. Notranslate prevents a search engine from offering an automatic translation of the page. Each of these can be combined freely alongside index/noindex and follow/nofollow in the same tag.
Fine grained control over snippets and previews
Google supports several extended directives for finer control than the blunt nosnippet option allows. max-snippet sets a maximum character length for the text snippet shown in search results, with a value of 0 preventing a snippet entirely and -1 allowing an unlimited length at Google's discretion. max-image-preview controls the largest allowed size for an image preview shown alongside the result, none, standard, or large. max-video-preview sets a maximum duration in seconds for a video preview, similarly with -1 for unlimited and 0 to disable video previews entirely. These give meaningfully more control than an all-or-nothing nosnippet directive when you want a short preview allowed but not a large image or video preview.
Meta tag versus X-Robots-Tag header, and why both matter
The exact same directives can be applied two different ways: as a meta tag inside a page's HTML head, or as an X-Robots-Tag HTTP response header set at the server level. The meta tag only works for HTML pages, since it needs to live inside an HTML head element, while the header works for any file type at all, a PDF, an image, or any other non-HTML resource that can't contain a meta tag. This is exactly why our HTTP Header Checker specifically flags X-Robots-Tag when it finds one, it's applied at a different, less visible layer than page content, easy to overlook during a routine content review since it never appears in the page's visible HTML source.
Runs entirely in your browser
The tag and header values are both built directly in your browser as you adjust the options, nothing you configure is sent to a server. If you want to double check whether a page you've deployed is actually serving the tag or header you intended, our HTTP Header Checker confirms exactly what's live, part of the same Technical SEO Tools collection this tool belongs to.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between noindex and nofollow?
Noindex tells search engines not to include the page in results. Nofollow tells them not to pass ranking credit through the page's outbound links. They can be used independently or together.
Can I add multiple directives to one tag?
Yes, directives like noindex, nofollow, and noarchive can be combined in a single robots meta tag as needed.
What's the difference between the meta tag and the X-Robots-Tag header?
They apply the exact same directives, but the meta tag only works inside an HTML page's head, while the header works at the server level for any file type, including non-HTML resources like PDFs.
What does max-snippet actually control?
It sets a maximum character length for the text snippet shown in search results, with 0 disabling snippets entirely and -1 allowing Google to choose an unlimited length.
Can a page be noindex but still follow its links?
Yes, index/noindex and follow/nofollow are independent directives. A noindex page can still be set to follow, allowing its links to be crawled even though the page itself won't appear in search results.
What does unavailable_after actually do?
It tells Google to automatically treat the page as noindex after a specified date and time, useful for time-limited content like an event page or a limited-time offer that should stop appearing in search results once it's no longer relevant.
Does targeting Googlebot specifically instead of all crawlers make a difference?
Yes, using name="googlebot" instead of name="robots" applies the directives only to Google's crawler, leaving other search engines unaffected, useful when you want different indexing behavior across different search engines.
Is my configuration uploaded anywhere?
No, the tag and header are built entirely in your browser as you adjust the options. Nothing is sent to a server.