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Lizely

Meta Robots Generator

Build a validated robots meta tag and equivalent X-Robots-Tag header from current Google-supported indexing and preview controls without contradictory combinations.

Privacy: your files never leave your device. All processing happens locally in your browser.

How to use

  1. 1.Choose the crawler target and only the indexing, following and preview restrictions that match the resource policy.
  2. 2.Generate and copy either the HTML meta element for a page or the X-Robots-Tag header for a server response.
  3. 3.Deploy while allowing crawl access, then inspect the public source and headers for duplicate or conflicting rules until recrawling occurs.

About Meta Robots Generator

Meta Robots Generator creates a page-level robots meta element and an equivalent X-Robots-Tag response header from one validated set of choices. Select whether the rule targets general search crawlers, Googlebot text results or Googlebot News, then add only the indexing and presentation limits you intend. Generation is entirely local and the output can be copied without contacting a search service.

The general robots target emits a meta element whose name is robots and an unqualified X-Robots-Tag header. A Google-specific target uses googlebot or googlebot-news as the meta name and prefixes that user agent in the HTTP header value. Google documents those two tokens for its text and news results. Other crawler names and vendor-specific behavior are outside this focused interface.

Noindex requests that a page or resource not appear in search results. Nofollow requests that links on the page not be followed. These are crawler directives, not authentication or access control. Anyone who knows the URL can still request the content, and crawlers that ignore the rule can still process it. Sensitive information must be protected with real authorization, not a metadata tag.

Nosnippet requests that Google not show a text snippet or video preview. Google also states that this prevents the page content from being used as direct input for AI Overviews and AI Mode, while a static image thumbnail may still appear. A numeric max-snippet value instead limits textual snippet characters. The tool refuses to emit both because the more restrictive nosnippet would make the numeric choice misleading.

Max-snippet accepts -1 or a non-negative whole number. Google defines zero as equivalent to no snippet and -1 as allowing it to choose an effective length. Max-video-preview uses seconds, with zero permitting at most a static image under the image rule and -1 meaning no duration limit. Non-integers and values below -1 are rejected rather than copied into a rule Google would ignore.

Max-image-preview accepts the documented none, standard and large settings. None requests no image preview, standard permits a default preview, and large permits a larger preview up to viewport width. These limits can be superseded when a publisher has separately granted specific permission through structured data, AMP relationships or licensing, so the generated string is not a universal content-use switch.

Notranslate asks Google not to offer a translated title and snippet. Noimageindex asks it not to index images on the page. Indexifembedded allows content to be indexed when embedded through an iframe or similar element despite noindex, and Google states that it only has an effect when accompanied by noindex. The generator enforces that dependency before showing output.

The interface deliberately omits noarchive. Google now lists that rule as historical and unused because its cached-link feature no longer exists. Including a familiar but ignored checkbox would create false confidence. It also omits unavailable_after because correct date-time formatting, time zones and publication workflows need more context than a small generic form should guess.

A crawler must be allowed to fetch the resource before it can read either form. If robots.txt disallows crawling, Google may never see the noindex rule, so the URL can remain known from external links without the page content being processed. To remove an accessible page from results, permit crawling and serve the directive until the search engine processes it.

Use the HTML meta element for HTML pages where you control markup. Use X-Robots-Tag for non-HTML resources such as PDFs, images or video, or when response-header management is more reliable. The header must be configured by the web server, application or CDN. Pasting the displayed header text into page content has no effect.

Conflicting rules across multiple meta tags, HTTP headers or crawler-specific declarations are interpreted using combined restrictions, and Google says the more restrictive rule applies. Inventory existing output before adding another tag. A CMS, SEO plugin, reverse proxy and CDN can each add directives, so inspect the delivered HTML and actual response headers rather than only the editor setting.

Eight source-backed fixtures cover all, noindex, combined noindex and nofollow, nosnippet, a 20-character text limit, large image preview, unlimited video preview and combined translation/image controls. Negative tests cover indexifembedded without noindex, nosnippet with a numeric snippet limit, malformed numbers and values below the documented minimum.

After deployment, fetch the public URL as the intended crawler can access it, inspect source or response headers, and confirm there is no contradictory declaration. Search engines process changes on their own crawl schedule, and other engines may interpret Google-specific directives differently. This generator produces exact syntax; it cannot guarantee deindexing, timing or a particular search-result presentation.

Methodology & sources

A typed option set is converted in stable order to current Google-documented tokens, numeric preview limits accept only -1 or non-negative integers, nosnippet conflicts with max-snippet, indexifembedded requires noindex, and the same content is serialized as HTML metadata plus an optionally crawler-qualified HTTP header.

Frequently asked questions

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