# Robots meta tag

> The robots meta tag gives search engines instructions for one page, such as noindex (keep it out of results) or nofollow (do not follow its links).

- **Check ID:** S7
- **Area:** [SEO](https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo)
- **Tool:** [SEO + Security + Performance](https://be1st.ai/tools/ssp-audit)
- **Page:** https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo/robots-meta-tag

## Why it matters

A meta robots tag with a 'noindex' value completely excludes the page from search results. It often happens that developers forget to remove noindex after transitioning from a staging environment to production.

## In practice

A well-known case: a large e-shop forgot to remove 'noindex' after migrating to a new server and lost 80% of organic traffic within a week. Google Search Console can alert you to this issue, but with a delay.

## How be1st checks it

Checks whether the page contains a meta robots tag with a 'noindex' value, which prevents search engines from indexing the page. Verifies that main pages are accessible for indexing. If the meta robots tag is missing, the default index, follow applies and the check passes.

[SEO + Security + Performance](https://be1st.ai/tools/ssp-audit), SEO tab.

Every check ends as: Pass, Warning, Fail.

## Sources

- [Robots Meta Tag Specifications](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots-meta-tag) (Google Search Central)
- [Google Search Essentials](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials) (Google Search Central)

## Related terms

- [Open Graph tags](https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo/open-graph-tags): Open Graph tags are meta tags with the og: prefix that set the title, description and image a page shows when it is shared on Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack and other apps.
- [Twitter Card tags](https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo/twitter-card-tags): Twitter Card tags are meta tags with the twitter: prefix that control how a link preview looks when a page is shared on X, formerly Twitter.
- [Structured data](https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo/structured-data): Structured data is machine-readable markup, usually JSON-LD with the Schema.org vocabulary, that says what a page contains: a product, an article, a company or an event.
- [Image ALT texts](https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo/image-alt-texts): ALT text is the alt attribute of an image: a short written description that screen readers read aloud and search engines use to understand the picture.
- [Internal links](https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo/internal-links): Internal links point from one page to other pages of the same website. They help visitors and crawlers find content and spread authority across the site.
- [External links](https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo/external-links): External links point from your page to other websites. Links to trustworthy sources back up the claims in your text and let readers check them.