Robots Meta Tag Generator

What is robots meta tag generator?

A robots meta tag tells search engines what they may do with a page. The most common use is noindex, which keeps a page out of search results, such as thank you pages, thin tag pages and staging copies.

This generator builds the tag and the equivalent HTTP header, which is useful for files such as PDFs.

How to use the robots meta tag generator

1. Choose which crawlers the tag applies to.
2. Tick the directives you need.
3. Copy the meta tag into the head or the header into your server.

How the robots meta tag generator works

The selected directives are joined with commas in the content value. If nothing is selected, the tag uses index and follow, which are the defaults. Optional values are added as max snippet, max image preview or unavailable after.

Worked example

Common uses of the robots meta tag generator

• Thank you and checkout pages.
• Staging and test pages.
• Duplicate filter pages.
• Private PDFs.
• Controlling snippets.

Tips and common mistakes

Do not block a page in robots.txt if you want a noindex tag to be seen.

Index and follow are defaults, so you rarely need to write them.

Background: what to know before you rely on it

Search engines treat robots meta directives as instructions, but only if they can read them. A common mistake is to add noindex to a page and also block it in robots.txt: the crawler never visits the page, so it never sees the noindex, and the URL may stay in results. Another mistake is leaving a noindex tag on a launch template, which can remove a whole new site from search. After any change, use the URL inspection tool in Search Console to confirm what Google sees.

Private, free and fast

This tool runs entirely in your browser. What you type or choose is not uploaded to a server and is not saved after you close the page, which keeps it fast and private. It is free to use as often as you like. See more in all seo tools, or browse the full list of tools.

Related tools

Results are for information and education. For legal, financial, medical or security decisions, check with a qualified professional. Validate markup with search engine testing tools before publishing.