Suggest an editImprove this articleRefine the answer for “What is robots metadata?”. Your changes go to moderation before they’re published.Approval requiredContentWhat you’re changing🇺🇸EN🇺🇦UAPreviewTitle (EN)Short answer (EN)**Robots metadata** is metadata that **tells search bots** what they can and cannot do with a specific page: index it, follow its links, show snippets, and so on. **Key point:** robots metadata is a set of behavior rules for search bots.Shown above the full answer for quick recall.Answer (EN)Image**Robots metadata** is metadata that **tells search bots** what they can and cannot do with a specific page: index it, follow its links, show snippets, and so on. In other words: > robots metadata is a set of behavior rules for search bots. --- ## Why robots metadata is needed It lets you control **how a page participates in search**: - whether the page ends up in the index - whether the links on the page get counted - whether previews, descriptions, and cache can be shown - whether service or temporary pages need to be hidden --- ## What robots metadata looks like in HTML The classic form: ```html <meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow" /> ``` Search bots read this tag while crawling the page. --- ## Robots metadata in Next.js In Next.js, robots is set through the **Metadata API**: ```ts export const metadata = { robots: { index: false, follow: false } } ``` Next.js itself turns this into a correct `<meta name="robots">`. --- ## Main directives The most commonly used: - **index / noindex** - whether the page can be added to search - **follow / nofollow** - whether its links can be followed - **noimageindex** - don't index images - **nosnippet** - don't show a snippet - **noarchive** - don't store a cached copy of the page You can combine several rules. --- ## Usage examples ### Block a page from indexing ```ts export const metadata = { robots: { index: false } } ``` ### Allow indexing but block links ```ts export const metadata = { robots: { index: true, follow: false } } ``` ### Service pages Fits for: - `/login` - `/admin` - `/profile` - error pages - temporary pages --- ## Robots metadata ≠ robots.txt Important not to confuse the two: - **robots metadata** - works at the level of a specific page - is read after the HTML loads - **robots.txt** - works at the level of the whole site - controls crawling, not indexing They solve different tasks and are often used together. --- ## Inheritance Like other metadata: - robots can be set in a layout - pages can override the rules - the closest rule in the hierarchy applies --- ### Summary Robots metadata is: - instructions for search bots - control over page indexing - part of an SEO strategy - a convenient setting through the Metadata APIFor the reviewerNote to the moderator (optional)Visible only to the moderator. Helps review go faster.