When optimizing your website for search engines, controlling how your pages appear—or don’t appear—in search results is crucial. That’s where the Meta Robots Tag and X-Robots-Tag come into play. While both serve the purpose of guiding search engine crawlers, they work in different ways and apply to different types of content.
In this guide, we’ll break down:
- What Meta Robots Tag and X-Robots-Tag are
- How they differ
- How and when to use each
- Best practices and common mistakes
What Is a Meta Robots Tag?
The Meta Robots Tag is an HTML tag placed in the A <head> section of a webpage that gives instructions to search engine crawlers about how to index and follow the page. The best option is between the Meta Robots Tag and X-Robots-Tag.
Example:
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">
This tells crawlers not to index the page and not to follow links on it.
Common Meta Robots directives:
| Directive | Meaning |
|---|---|
index |
Allow the page to be indexed |
noindex |
Prevent the page from being indexed |
follow |
Allow search engines to follow links on the page |
nofollow |
Prevent search engines from following links |
noarchive |
Prevent search engines from showing a cached copy |
nosnippet |
Prevent search engines from showing a snippet in search results |
noimageindex |
Prevent images on the page from being indexed |
What Is an X-Robots-Tag?
The X-Robots-Tag is an HTTP header that provides similar instructions but is sent as part of the server response rather than being embedded in the HTML code. Determining the better choice between the Meta Robots Tag and X-Robots-Tag.
It’s particularly useful for controlling indexing on non-HTML files like PDFs, images, videos, or even HTTP responses like redirects.
Example HTTP Header:
X-Robots-Tag: noindex, nofollow
This instructs search engines not to index the resource and not to follow any links associated with it.
Key Differences
| Feature | Meta Robots Tag | X-Robots-Tag |
|---|---|---|
| Location | HTML <head> section |
HTTP response header |
| Applicable to | HTML pages | Any resource type (HTML, PDFs, images, etc.) |
| Control over | Crawlers’ behavior on page content | Crawlers’ behavior on HTTP responses or files |
| Common use case | Managing the indexing of web pages | Managing the indexing of non-HTML files or server-level control |
When to Use the Meta Robots Tag and X-Robots-Tag
Use of Meta Robots Tag
- When you want to control how HTML pages are indexed.
- If you want to specify indexing/following rules on a page-by-page basis.
- When you have access to edit the page’s HTML
<head>section.
Example use case:
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">
Use this on pages you want to keep out of search results, like login pages, thank-you pages, or duplicate content pages.
Use of X-Robots-Tag
- When you need to control crawling/indexing for non-HTML files such as PDFs, images, or videos.
- When you want to apply rules at the server level without modifying individual files.
- To prevent the indexing of files or responses that do not support meta tags.
Example Apache configuration:
<FilesMatch "\.(pdf|doc|xls)$">
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noindex, nofollow"
</FilesMatch>
Best Practices for Using Meta Robots Tag and X-Robots-Tag
- Use
noindexcarefully—pages withnoindexwon’t appear in search results, but can still be crawled unless combined withnofollow. - Use
nofollowto prevent crawling links that may dilute your search engine optimization or lead to untrusted content. - Use X-Robots-Tag when you want to manage indexing for non-HTML files or apply rules globally at the server level.
- Always test your directives with 22 Best Content Creation Tools, like Google Search Console URL Inspection and robots.txt testers.
Summary of Meta Robots and X-Robots-Tag
This summary outlines the differences and similarities between Meta Robots and the X-Robots-Tag.s summary outlines the differences and similarities between Meta Robots and the X-Robots-Tag.
| Tag | Purpose | Where to use |
|---|---|---|
| Meta Robots Tag | Control indexing/following for HTML pages | Inside page HTML <head> |
| X-Robots-Tag | Control indexing/following for any resource | HTTP response headers, server config |
If you found this helpful or want to explore the Meta Robots Tag and X-Robots-Tag further, feel free to ask! Would you like examples on how to configure X-Robots-Tag on popular web servers?
