Robots meta tags and X-robots tags are one of the most powerful SEO tools available for Google blogspot users. But, as a blogspot user, do you know how best to use these robots header tags?
Let's find out in this help article, just how much you know about robots tag.
Apart from posting good SEO optimized contents in your blogger website, there're SEO setups that should be done in your blogger blog should you be able to rank better in Google search results pages; SERP.
And robots meta tags and X-robots tags are one of those SEO setups.
These robots header tags allow you to control how your website should display in search results.
Fortunately, Blogger supports these two robots header tags and you can easily set both robots meta tags and X-robots tags for your Blogger blog, as you desire.
In this article you're going to learn about;
- What robots header tags are
- What X-robots tags are
- What robots meta tags are
- The difference between robots meta tags and X-robots tags
- How to use these robots header tags for Blogger website
- Which tags to use
- Plus a lot more
What is Robots Meta Tag?
Robots meta tag is an SEO directive that lets you utilize a granular, page-specific approach to controlling how an individual page should be indexed and served to users in Google Search results.
Robots meta tags and X-robots tags are also being referred to as Robots header tags because they're always positioned at the page header.
Similar to Google, other popular search engines such as Bing and Yandex also honour robots header tag directives.
What Does Robots Meta Tag Looks Like?
A robots meta tag block contains the meta element and attributes each of which always has a velue or content defined.
The defined content value is the directive or comma-separated list of directives that should be honoured by the robots.
For instance, below is an example of a robots header tag that's positioned in the <head> section of a page:
Explaining Robots HTML Meta Tag
| Meta | <meta> is an HTML element that represents metadata that cannot be represented by other HTML meta-related elements such as <base>, <link>, <script>, <style> or <title>. |
|---|---|
| Name | name is an attribute of the HTML <meta> element that when set, provides document-level metadata that applies to the whole page. |
| content | content is an HTML attribute that contains the value for the name attribute that's present within the same HTML <meta> element.NOTE: The value of the content is the directive that ought to be honoured by the robots. |
What is A Robots Tag Directive?
Robots tag directive is the instruction or set of instructions that's issued in the robots meta tags or X-robots tags.
In other words, the robots tag directive is the command that is issued for the robots using the robots meta tags or X-robots tag.
What is X-Robots-Tag?
X-Robots tag is an HTTP feature that can be used as an element of the HTTP header response for a given URL such that any directive that is used in a robots meta tag can also be specified as an X-Robots-Tag.
What Does X-Robots-Tag Looks Like?
X-Robots tag is any directive or comma-separated list of directives intended for robots that is usually contained within HTTP header response.
Robots Header Tag Directives and their Meanings
| Directive | Meaning |
|---|---|
| all | This directive implies that there are no restrictions for indexing or serving. NOTE: This directive is the default value and has no effect if explicitly listed. |
| noindex | If this directive is specified, it instructs the robots to not show this page, media, or resource in search results. NOTE: If you don't specify this directive, the page, media, or resource may be indexed and shown in search results. NOTE: Check our noindex SEO benefits and how to use it here |
| nofollow | If this directive is specified, it instructs the robots to not follow the links on this page. NOTE: If you don't specify this directive, Google may use the links on the page to discover those linked pages. NOTE: You can learn more about nofollow from here. |
| none | If this directive is specified, it is equivalent to when noindex, nofollow are both issued. |
| noarchive | If this directive is specified, it instructs the robots to not show a cached link in search results. NOTE: If you don't specify this directive, Google may generate a cached page and users may access it through the search results. |
| nositelinkssearchbox | If specified, it instructs the robots to not show a sitelinks search box in the search results for this page. NOTE: If you don't specify this directive, Google may generate a search box specific to your site in search results, along with other direct links to your site. |
| nosnippet | If specified, it instructs the robots to not show a text snippet or video preview in the search results for the page. However, a static image thumbnail (if available) may still be visible, if that'll give a better user experience. - According to Google, this applies to all forms of search results at Google including web search, Google Images, Discover. NOTEIf you don't specify this directive, Google may generate a text snippet and video preview based on information found on the page. |
| indexifembedded | If specified, this directive allows Google to index the content of a page if it's embedded in another page through iframes or similar HTML tags, in spite of a noindex directive. NOTE: this directive, " indexifembedded" has an effect ONLY if it's accompanied by noindex. |
| max-snippet: [number] | Use a maximum of [number] characters as a textual snippet for this search result. NOTE: This applies to all forms of search results at Google including web search, Google Images, Discover, Assistant. This directive is ignored if no parseable [number] is specified. |
| max-image-preview: [setting] | If specified, this sets the maximum size of an image preview for this page in a search results. If you don't specify the max-image-preview directive, Google may show an image preview of the default size. |
| max-video-preview: [number] | If specified, this instructs robots to use a maximum of [number] seconds as a video snippet for videos on this page in search results. If you don't specify the max-video-preview directive, Google may show a video snippet in search results, and you leave it up to Google to decide how long the preview may be. |
| notranslate | If specified, this directive instructs robots not to offer translation of this page in search results. If you don't specify this directive, Google may provide a translation of the title link and snippet of a search result for results that aren't in the language of the search query. And if the user clicks the translated title link, all further user interaction with the page is through Google Translate, which will automatically translate any links followed. |
| noimageindex | If specified, the directive instructs robots not to index images on this page. If you don't specify this value, images on the page may be indexed and shown in search results. |
| unavailable_after: [date/time] | If specified, this directive instructs robots not to show this page in search results after the specified date/time. The date/time must be specified in a widely adopted format including, but not limited to RFC 822, RFC 850, and ISO 8601. NOTE: This directive is ignored if no valid date/time is specified. By default there is no expiration date for content. |
| noodp | If specified, this directive instructs robots to not use metadata from the Open Directory Project for titles or snippets shown for this page. NOTE: The "noodp" directive is no longer supported. Learn more here |
Robots Meta Tag vs. X-Robots-Tag: What's the Difference?
Robots meta tag is a client-side directive while X-Robots tag is a server-side directive.
Although Blogger supports the two robots header tags, only limited directives are available to you if you want to use the X-robots tag option.
However, with robots meta tag option, you have limitless directives to use. You only need to know and understand which directives are suitable for your use case.
Robots Meta Tag or X-robots Tag - Which One Should You Use for Blogger Websites?
As far as Google's Blogging platform, Blogger is concerned, robots meta tag is the best robots header tag option to use.
Apart from robots meta tags' flexibility and superiority, it is the only option you have absolute control over.
Why is Robots Meta Tag More Superior than X-robots Tag in Blogger?
In order to determine which of these robots header tags is more superior, we conducted an experiment on a number of Blogger websites.
Our Approach:
- Using a few of those Blogger websites that use our Blogger templates, we set different directives in the robots header tags.
- In X-robots tags, below is our directives for the Blogger website's Search and Labels pages:
- Then, we gave an entirely opposite directives in meta tags. Below is our directives for the Blogger website's Search and Labels pages in meta tag:
The Outcome of the Experiment:
After about six days from the day we altered the robots header tags, we discovered that Google had indexed the entire site per the instructions or directives given in the robots meta tgas.
By this outcome, Google completely ignored the directives given in the X-robots tags in favour of the directives provided in the robots meta tags.
So, what does this imply?
...implies that robots meta tags is more superior than the X-robots tags.
Although, in the absence of robots meta tags, Google may honour X-robots tags directives. In the presence of both, Google simply prefer rebots meta tags directives.
Why is Robots Meta Tags More Flexible to Blogger Websites Users?
- Because it can be easily modified than the X-robots tags.
- Robots meta tags can be easily monitored by yourself.
- By default, Blogger does support only limited robots header tags directives. But by using robots meta tags, you can actually issue as many robots header tags directives as you know or want.
How to Enable Custom Robots Header Tags in Blogger : X-Robots-Tag Method
- Log in to Blogger Dashboard
- From the Menu to the left of your Blogger blog, click SETTINGS
- From the settings, scroll down to Crawlers and Indexing
- Now, locate and click on Enable custom robots header tags
- You may now modify the X-robots header tags for Blogger website. See below for the instructions:
- To set X-Robots header tags for Homepage, see the image below for the settings
- To set X-Robots header tags for Archive, Search and Labels or Tags pages, see the image below for the settings
- To set X-Robots header tags for Posts and Pages, see the image below for the settings
NOTE: NOODP is not checked / enabled in any of the page's X-Robots header tags settings because according to Google in this article; Google no longer support noodp tag.
As a result, NOODP is no longer a valid robots header tag directive and should henceforth not be used or set.
How to Enable Custom Robots Header Tags in Blogger : Meta Tag Method
-
Log in to Blogger Dashboard
Visit Blogger.com, click login and then, enter your login details to proceed.
If you're already logged-in with your Google account on that browser, you'll be automatically taken to Blogger Dashboard.
-
Locate and Click Theme
From the Menu to the left of your Blogger blog, click THEME
NOTE: the procedures explained here requires that you modify your blogger website template / source codes.
Therefore, it is very recommended that you backup your blogger template before you proceed. Learn how to backup Blogger template.
-
View Your Blogger Website Source Code
On the page that opens after clicking Theme, click on the radio button that has an icon pointing downward in it and then click Edit HTML.
The next screen will display a whole lots of code.
-
Enable Hidden HTML Search Widget on this Screen
Now, click anywhere inside the source codes and press
CTRL + Fon your keyboard. Doing this should pop out a search widget.You can use this search widget to search for any content within this source codes only.
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Locate Blogger Header Tag
Next, using the search widget that popped out in the previous step, search for and locate your Blogger site header tag.
To do that, copy the code below and paste it on the search widget:
<head>
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Paste Robots Header Meta Tags in Blogger Header
Now, copy the Robots HTML header meta tags provided below and paste them just below the Blogger
<head>tag you located from the previous step:<!-- Robots Meta Tags for Blogger By Bloggerthemer.com --> <b:if cond='data:view.isSearch and !data:view.isLabelSearch'> <meta content='noindex, nofollow' name='robots'/> <b:elseif cond='data:view.archive'/> <meta content='doindex, dofollow' name='robots'/> <b:else/> <meta content='doindex, dofollow, noarchive' name='robots'/> </b:if>NOTE: the robots meta tags provided above is the best for Blogger sites till today.
Based on our tests, using this robots meta tag should produce your Blogger site additional up to 166 percent organic traffic.
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Click Save
Finally, click the "SAVE" button to effect the changes made on your Blogger theme.
Once saved, you may now visit your Blogger site to see that everything works fine and as supposed.
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