Robots Meta Tag Checker

Inspect `` directives (`index`, `noindex`, `follow`, `nofollow`, `noarchive`, `nosnippet`) and `X-Robots-Tag` HTTP response headers to ensure proper search engine indexing.

Popular examples: https://google.comhttps://github.comhttps://wikipedia.org
Indexability Check

Verify whether Googlebot, Bingbot, and search engines are permitted to index your URL or blocked via noindex.

Link Following Check

Inspect follow vs nofollow crawl rules for internal and external hyperlink equity.

X-Robots-Tag Inspection

Detect server-level X-Robots-Tag HTTP response headers that override HTML meta directives.

Scanning robots meta directives...

Search Engine Indexability Status

Indexable

Link Followability Status

Followable

HTML Meta Robots Directives
Bot Target NameDirective Content
HTTP Response Header: X-Robots-Tag
None detected

Understanding Meta Robots & Crawling Directives

The meta robots tag provides page-level instructions to search engine web crawlers. By default, crawlers assume index, follow if no tag is present. Using directives like noindex, nofollow, noarchive, or nosnippet lets webmasters precisely control how search engines index pages and handle snippet previews.

How to Use the Robots Meta Tag Checker

1 Enter URL

Input any public website address or staging page URL.

2 Click Check Directives

Our tool fetches page HTML and HTTP headers to extract all crawler rules.

3 Verify Indexability

Review status badges for indexable and followable status before publishing.

Robots Directives Best Practices

Recommended
  • Allow indexing (index, follow) on all primary landing pages and posts.
  • Use noindex on internal search results, staging environments, and thank-you pages.
  • Use server-level X-Robots-Tag HTTP response headers to control PDF/binary downloads.
  • Keep HTML meta directives consistent with HTTP headers.
Avoid
  • Do not leave accidental noindex tags on production pages after launching.
  • Avoid blocking pages in robots.txt if you want Google to see the noindex tag.
  • Avoid conflicting index vs noindex rules across multiple tags.
  • Don't use nofollow on internal navigation links unless necessary.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

robots.txt blocks crawlers from accessing a URL, but the page can still be indexed if linked externally. The noindex meta tag explicitly tells crawlers not to include the page in search engine index.

An X-Robots-Tag is an HTTP header sent by the web server (e.g. Apache or Nginx). It allows webmasters to apply robots directives to non-HTML files like PDFs, images, or JSON API endpoints.

The noindex, follow instruction tells search engine bots not to show the current page in search results, but allows bots to follow hyperlinks on the page to discover and rank target linked pages.

Google removes a page from search results as soon as Googlebot re-crawls the page and detects the noindex tag, which usually takes from a few hours to a few days.

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