The Google Search Advocate John Mueller discusses whether or not employing meta robot tags affects page ranking in search results. There is a common misconception that meta robot tags affect search rankings because websites can use them to customize search snippets. Meta robots tags are not rating indicators, so the brief answer is no, and the answer is that they will influence click-through rates. Here in this article, we’ll find out if meta robots tags affect search rankings.
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What Are Meta Robots Tags?
A robot meta directive (also referred to as a “meta tag”) instructs crawlers how to crawl and index a web page or document. It provides more definitive instructions on how bots should crawl and index a page’s content than robots.txt directives, which give suggestions about how to crawl and index a website.Â
The robot’s meta directives can be in an HTML document (meta robots tag, for example) or in an HTTP header (x-robots-tag, for example). It is the way those parameters are sent to crawlers that differs between meta robots and X-robots-tag.
See Also: Google Search Engine Ranking Algorithm Update.
What Are Meta Tags?
Search engines and website visitors can use meta tags to assemble data about a website. Descriptions, keywords, authors, and other metadata are all included within the tag. Tags are done to provide information regarding web pages, not to affect the content of those pages.
The meta tags on your website are critical to optimizing it for search engines. The use of meta tags is an essential part of enhancing the ranking and visibility of your website in search engines. It is important to note, however, that overusing meta tags can result in search engines penalizing your site.
Google Answers: If Meta Robots Tags Affect Search Rankings?
Google, standing as the world’s most widespread search engine, it plays a crucial role in how individuals discover information online. Along with delivering users a robust search tool, Google also gives web admins several resources and tools to help optimize their sites for maximum search engine visibility.
It is necessary to use meta tags accurately when optimizing your website. This provides them with information about your content. Among the most critical meta tags is the meta robots tag. It specifies whether search engines will index a page and follow its links.
Indirectly, meta robots can affect search rankings, although they do not directly affect them. Search engines do not show pages in search results when you inform them not to index them. If you imply a search engine not to follow links on a page, the search engine will not follow those links. This lowers the PageRank of those linked-to pages.
See Also: Why Search Engine Rankings Fluctuate?
Conclusion
Employing the nositelinkssearchbox tag will make your search snippet look more useful without sitelinks search field. In that matter, the click-through price would undoubtedly be over-blown, but it would not influence Google’s ranking.
Meta robots do not seem to have an effect on search engine rankings at the moment. Nevertheless, it is possible that it may do so in the future. To improve your website’s search engine ranking, keep up with the latest algorithm changes and SEO practices.Â