How it works
It belongs in the head and can contain noindex and other directives; different directives have different effects.
Example
Example: A noindex page remains accessible to visitors while a search engine may exclude it.
Common mistakes
Do not use metadata as protection for private data.
How can you check this in practice?
Inspect robots metadata in the head of initial and rendered HTML. Also examine X-Robots-Tag response headers for additional instructions. With conflicting directives, do not assume an index value automatically overrides restrictive noindex.
Distinctions and limitations
Indexing and snippet directives serve different purposes. noindex excludes results; nosnippet restricts presentation. robots.txt can prevent these directives being read when it blocks the page itself.
Official sources
Editorial responsibility: Martin Zhelyazkov · Founder of Z-Consult
Updated: 05/11/2026
For a correction or question: office@z-consult.bg