How to Use the Robots Meta Tag pr0
Post Rank

Robots meta tag basics

The robots meta tag is a part of a web that communicates information to robots. The robots meta tag is written within the <head> of an HTML file and looks something like this:

<meta name=”robots” content=”noindex, nofollow, noodp, noydir, nosnippet “>

Here is what you can put inside the “content” area:

  • “noindex”– this will prevent engines from the
  • “nofollow” — this will prevent engines from following any link on the
  • “noarchive” — this will prevent engines from keeping a cached version of the in results
  • “nosnippet” — this will prevent a description from appearing on your site’s listing on results pages
  • “noodp” — this will prevent engines from displaying the Open Directory title or description on your site’s listing
  • “noydir” — this will prevent ! from displaying the ! Directory title or description on your listing
  • “none” - this is the equivalent of “noindex, nofollow”
  • “noimageindex” - this will prevent engines from images on the

Excluding a from with NOINDEX

To exclude a from , use the following format: <meta name=”robots” content=”noindex”> .

This type of exclusion is an alternative to excluding with the robots.txt file. Differences between the two methods of exclusion can be seen in the following table: (note, this table applies to only).

Table: Robots Exclusion with the Robots Meta Tag

Feature Robots.txt exclusion Robots meta tag exclusion
accumulates PageRank? yes yes
listed in ? the URL may be displayed in listings no
passes PageRank through outbound links? no yes!

Improving Listings with NOODP and NOYDIR

Some websites are saddled with outdated titles and descriptions from the ! Directory or the Open Directory. This is a very simple problem to solve, using the “noodp” and “noydir” meta tags. These tags will prevent the directory titles and descriptions from displaying for your site. Instead, your own HTML titles will display, along with snippets that are generated from your content (or, sometimes, your Meta Descripton tag).


Incoming Links (via Tecnorati):
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