Meta robots tags are instructions placed in a page’s HTML that tell search engines how to crawl and index that page. You add them in the <head> section, and they can control whether the page should appear in search results and whether search engines should follow links on the page. Common directives include index or noindex, and follow or nofollow, along with options like noarchive or nosnippet depending on what you want to allow.
Used correctly, meta robots tags help you manage visibility with precision, which is important for clear search signals. For example, you might noindex thin utility pages, internal search results, or duplicate variations you do not want showing up in SERPs, while leaving your main pages indexable. Just be careful, because an accidental noindex on important pages can remove them from results. It is also worth noting that meta robots tags affect individual pages, while robots.txt controls crawling access more broadly, so choose the right tool for the job.