Meta tags

Meta tags the Yandex indexing bot takes into account
Configuring the rules for loading and indexing pages
- Directives supported by Yandex
- Examples of using directives

Use meta tags to specify metadata for your site pages. Indexing bots use a number of meta tags to identify the contents and context of pages more accurately. This determined how a page is indexed, ranked, and displayed in search results.

With meta tags, you can provide instructions for bots on how to load and index your site pages.

Meta tags the Yandex indexing bot takes into account

Meta tag	Description
`Description`	Can be used in site page descriptions displayed in search results. Learn more. Example: `<meta name="description" content="..."/>`
`keywords`	Can influence the page's relevance to search queries. Example: `<meta name="keywords" content="..."/>`
`robots`	Defines the rules for loading and indexing site pages. Learn more. Example: `<meta name="robots" content="..."/>`
`viewport`	Adapts sites for mobile devices. Controls viewport scaling in the browser. Learn more The value `width=device-width` adapts the width of the viewport to the device screen. The value `initial-scale=1` maintains the 1:1 ratio of CSS pixels to independent device pixels. If the meta tag is omitted, mobile browsers show the page for a computer screen by default. Since the screen width on a mobile device is significantly less than a computer screen, browsers try to optimize the content by increasing the font size, scaling the content to the screen size, or showing only the part of the content that fits on the screen. Example: `<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">`
`Content-Type`	Defines the type and encoding of a document. Example: `<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="type; charset=..."/>`
`refresh`	Redirects the user to the page with the specified URL after N seconds. For small N values, it's considered a temporary redirect. This is similar to server redirects with the HTTP code 302/303/307. Use this meta tag when moving your site. Example: `<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="N;url=_redirect target address_">`

Configuring the rules for loading and indexing pages

You can use one of the following ways to configure your rules with a directive:

Place the robots meta tag inside the head element of the page's HTML code.
Configure the X-Robots-Tag HTTP header for a specific URL on your site's server.

Note

If the page is prohibited in the robots.txt file, the meta tag or header directive does not apply.

Indexing bots take meta tags and headers into account by default. You can specify directives for certain robots.

Directives supported by Yandex

Directive	Description	Robots meta tag	X-Robots-Tag header
`noindex`	Prohibits indexing the page text. The page won't be included in the search results.
`nofollow`	Prohibits following the links on the page. The robot will not follow links when crawling the site, but it can find out about them from other sources. For example, on other pages or sites.
`none`	Similar to `noindex` and `nofollow` directives.
`noarchive`	Prohibits showing the link to the saved copy on the search results page.
`index` \| `follow` \| `archive`	Cancels prohibiting directives.		—
`all`	Allows search engines to index text and links on the page, similar to `index` and `follow` directives.		—

The bot uses allow directives by default, so you can omit them if there are no other directives. Allow directives take priority when combined with prohibiting ones.

Example

<meta name="robots" content="all"/>
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, follow"/>
<!--The indexing bot will choose the “all” value. Text and links will be indexed.-->
<meta name="robots" content="all"/>
<meta name="robots" content="noarchive"/>
<!--Text and links will be indexed, but in the search results there will be no link 
to the saved copy of the page.-->

Robots from other search engines and services may interpret the directives in a different way.

Examples of using directives

Specify multiple directives

Robots meta tag

X-Robots-Tag header

You can specify multiple directives separated by commas. Example:

<meta name="yandex" content="noindex, nofollow" />

You can pass multiple headers in a single response and a list of comma-separated directives. Example:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Tue, 25 May 2010 21:42:43 GMT
X-Robots-Tag: noindex, nofollow
X-Robots-Tag: noarchive

Specify directives for specific indexing bots

You can use the robots meta tag to give a directive to the Yandex robots only. Example:

<meta name="yandex" content="noindex" />

If you list common directives and directives for the Yandex robots, the search engine will take into account all of them. Example:

<meta name="robots" content="noindex" />
<meta name="yandex" content="nofollow" />

The Yandex robot will treat these directives as noindex, nofollow.

Prohibit page indexing

Robots meta tag

X-Robots-Tag header

An element that disables page indexing. Example:

<html>
    <head>
        <meta name="robots" content="noindex" />
    </head>
    <body>...</body>
</html>

An HTTP response with a header that prohibits indexing the page. Example:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Tue, 25 May 2010 21:42:43 GMT
X-Robots-Tag: noindex

Contact support

If the pages don't appear in the search results for a long time or were excluded from them, provide examples of such pages in the form.

You can also go to

Was the article helpful?

How do I lower a load on the site or server?

About the IndexNow protocol