The Robots Meta Tag is an HTML tag providng instructions to search engine crawlers on how to index and display a webpage in search results. The tag offers directives that can be used to control crawling, indexing, and how the page should be displayed in search results.
It can be used to tell search engines whether to follow or nofollow links, index or non-index the page, and show the page in search results or keep it hidden. The Robots Meta Tag can be added to the head section of a webpage using the HTML <meta> tag.
Why is the robots meta tag important for SEO?
The robots meta tag is important for SEO because it allows website owners to control how search engines crawl and index their web pages. The tag is a piece of code that is included in the head section of a web page, and it provides instructions to search engine bots on whether to index a page, follow links on the page, or ignore the page altogether.
- Indexing control: The robot’s meta tag allows website owners to specify whether a page should be indexed. If a page is irrelevant or valuable for search engine users, website owners can use the “no-index” directive to block search engines from indexing it.
- Crawl budget optimization: Search engine bots have a limited time to crawl a website, and some pages may be more important than others. The robots meta tag allows website owners to prioritize which pages should be crawled first, using the “priority” and “frequency” directives.
- Duplicate content prevention: Duplicate content can hurt a website’s search engine rankings, as search engines may struggle to determine which version of the content is the original. The robots meta tag can help prevent this issue by using the “canonical” directive to specify the original version of the content.
- Link equity distribution: When search engine bots crawl a web page, they follow the links to discover other pages on the website. The robots meta tag can control how the link equity (the value passed through links) is distributed throughout the website by using the “nofollow” directive to prevent the bot from following a link.
In summary, the robots meta tag is important for SEO because it allows website owners more control over how their website is crawled and indexed by search engines. Using the tag effectively, website owners can improve their search engine rankings and provide a better user experience.
Co-Founder & General Manager @ ROI Digitally
