Updated · Built and checked by the PlinzoTools team, formulas tested against published sources
Parse and explain every directive in a robots meta tag's content value.
Do not show this page in search results.
Do not follow (pass link equity through) the links on this page.
This tool parses a comma-separated <meta name="robots" content="..."> value and explains exactly what each directive does, using Google's own documented list of supported robots meta directives.
Enter the content value (e.g. "noindex, nofollow"). A plain-language explanation of each directive appears instantly, with a warning if directives conflict.
The tool splits the content value on commas, trims whitespace, lowercases every piece, and drops empty items. For each directive it looks at the text before any colon, so a value such as max-snippet:50 is matched against the max-snippet entry. Each directive is then shown with its plain-language meaning, or with a note that it is not a recognized standard directive. Case does not matter, so NoIndex and noindex are treated identically.
The only conflict check the tool performs is for index and noindex appearing together. Other contradictory combinations, such as follow with nofollow, are explained one by one but not flagged as conflicts, so read the list as a whole.
Suppose a staging page carries the value noindex, nofollow, max-snippet:0. The tool lists three directives. Noindex tells search engines not to show the page in results. Nofollow says not to follow the links on it. Max-snippet limits snippet length in results, though combined with noindex the page would not appear anyway. That is a sensible set for a staging environment, but it is a dangerous one to carry into production, which brings up the most common real-world incident this tool helps catch.
A frequent cause of pages vanishing from search is a noindex directive left in the template after a site launch or redesign. Developers often add it to keep a staging site out of results and forget to remove it. If a key page has dropped out of search, copy the robots meta content from the page source into this tool. If noindex shows up, that is a strong lead. Also check the HTTP response headers, because the same instructions can be sent through an X-Robots-Tag header, which this tool cannot see.
The tool explains only what you paste. It does not fetch your page, does not know whether a crawler-specific tag such as one addressed to a single named bot exists elsewhere, and does not verify the syntax of directive values such as dates or numbers after a colon. Different search engines support different directives, and support can change over time, so consult each search engine's own documentation for the final word.
A robots meta tag only works if the crawler can fetch the page. If robots.txt blocks a URL, the crawler never sees the noindex on it, and the URL can occasionally still appear in results based on links from elsewhere. To remove a page reliably, allow crawling so the noindex can be read. The Robots.txt Tester on this site covers the crawling side.
robots.txt controls crawling (can a bot even fetch the page); the robots meta tag controls indexing/following once a bot has already fetched it. See the Robots.txt Tester for the crawling side.
Don't show this page in search results, and don't pass link equity through its outbound links.
The tool will label it as not recognized. Crawlers generally ignore directives they do not understand, which means a typo like noindx silently does nothing, so a page you meant to hide would stay indexable.
You can, but it is not needed because they are the defaults. Avoid combining index with noindex, which the tool flags as a conflict.
Inside the head element as a meta tag with the name attribute set to robots and the directives in the content attribute. Paste only the content value into this tool.
Crawlers need to revisit the page before they see the change, so it can take days or weeks. Requesting a recrawl through the search engine's webmaster tools can speed it up.
Reference: Google Search Central