Free browser tool / Googlebot text search
Meta robots checker
Find the robots rule that wins.
Check a live URL or paste HTML and response headers. This meta robots checker combines applicable rules and shows where each restriction came from.
XML and XHTML aren't supported. The checker doesn't render JavaScript or check Google indexing.
Check tags and headers together
Observed response
One fetch, one observation. Servers may respond differently to Googlebot, your browser or another location. A status code or directive doesn't establish index status.
Directive analysis
Directive provenance
Every row retains its source. Rules for other named crawlers are excluded from this Googlebot report.
| Source | Target | Directive | Evaluation |
|---|
Verify the final live response before changing production settings. HTML alone can't rule out an X-Robots-Tag restriction. Headers alone can't rule out a restriction in HTML. These summaries are directive findings, never an index-status verdict.
Run the published interpretation fixtures
These synthetic examples have hand-written expected outcomes. Run them against the checker in this browser, or download the inputs and expectations to reproduce the comparison. They test interpretation, not Google's live behavior. Pasted input isn't included.
Interpretation / explicit scope
A specific tag doesn't erase a general restriction
When applicable Googlebot rules conflict, Google uses the more restrictive rule. A permissive tag doesn't cancel a restrictive one. Google’s conflict rules.
One combined set of restrictions
For Googlebot, a generic robots tag and a googlebot tag both contribute. Adding index in one place doesn't clear noindex elsewhere. The none rule is equivalent to noindex plus nofollow. Google's directive definitions. An applicable response header can add a restriction too. The result table keeps those sources visible so you can locate the setting to change.
The robots tag applies to all search engines while the googlebot tag is specific to Google. Default index and follow values need no explicit tag. A result with no detected restriction is a statement about this input, not a guarantee of indexing. Google's supported metadata reference.
Preview limits are separate
The checker compares repeated numeric bounds using the smallest finite value, with -1 treated as unlimited. max-snippet:0 and nosnippet suppress snippets. Video limits use seconds. A video preview limit of zero allows at most a static image. A missing bound leaves that choice to Google. Google's robots directive specification.
Image limits run from none to standard to large. The checker selects the smallest applicable limit. Google defines the three preview settings.
A snippet may come from page text rather than your description, and vary with the query. This tool doesn't preview an actual search result. How Google creates snippets.
From a conflict to a verified fix
- Open the live page's source and copy the complete HTML. In browser DevTools, use Network, reload the page, select the document request and copy its response headers.
- Analyze both inputs. For a noindex conflict, locate every contributing source in the provenance table. Check the CMS SEO setting, template or server configuration responsible for it.
- Change every contributing source to the intended setting. A permissive tag elsewhere can't cancel a restriction.
- Fetch the page again and check the new response. Use Search Console URL Inspection to see the HTML Google received and test the live URL.
Google must crawl a resource to discover noindex. Blocking the same URL in robots.txt can prevent that discovery. Removal also depends on recrawling. A noindex directive isn't access control for private information. Google's noindex implementation guidance.
Methodology and evaluated rules
Published by Michael Lip / AI Website Pipeline. Rules and limitations are documented below. Published project attribution.
The checker reads meta elements in fetched or pasted HTML, including body tags, plus complete X-Robots-Tag header lines. Names are case-insensitive.
- Where noindex can live
- A site can send it as an X-Robots-Tag header instead of a meta tag. Google's noindex header guidance.
- Multiple headers
- Google allows several X-Robots-Tag headers in one response, or a comma-separated list of directives. Google robots meta and header rules.
- Directives handled
- index, follow, all, none, noindex, nofollow, nosnippet, preview limits, notranslate, noimageindex and indexifembedded.
- Historical directives
- noarchive, nocache and nositelinkssearchbox are reported as unused by Google.
- What makes a report incomplete
- Unknown or malformed directives.
indexifembedded is shown as an exception only alongside noindex. The standalone resource remains restricted, while embedded content can be indexed. Google's indexifembedded rule and the embedded indexing announcement.
Expiration requires manual review. unavailable_after dates are preserved but not evaluated. A report containing one is incomplete.
One crawler prefix per header line. Mixed named crawler groups on a line require manual review. Other named crawlers, including googlebot-news, are outside this text-search report.
Source parsing only. There is no JavaScript rendering, robots.txt lookup, canonical check, data-nosnippet analysis or live indexing check. Live mode displays the observed HTTP status; pasted mode can't verify the server response.
Template contents and script strings aren't active tags. The inert template uses fragment parsing. It supports well-formed full-page source, but malformed document structure can differ from a browser document or Google's interpretation. The checker doesn't perform full-document conformance validation.
No missing-input assumptions. An absent header field is disclosed. A pasted header block without an X-Robots-Tag only proves none was found in that block. Live mode explicitly reports whether the final fetched response included this header.
Parsing uses an inert HTML template and displays input as text. HTML metadata standard. Rules reviewed September 8, 2026. This report covers Googlebot text results only.
Keep checking the same response
Use the robots.txt checker for crawl rules, the Open Graph checker for sharing metadata, and the sitemap validator for sitemap structure. Each checks a different part of a page's discovery and presentation.
