What is X-Robots-Tag Header Generator?
X-Robots-Tag is an HTTP response header that tells search engines how to handle a resource in their index. It is the HTTP equivalent of the robots meta tag but works on any file type — PDFs, images, videos, feeds, JSON responses, and HTML pages alike. The header accepts the same directives as the meta tag: noindex, nofollow, noarchive, nosnippet, noimageindex, notranslate, and others.
quickAnswer
X-Robots-Tag is an HTTP header that controls search engine indexing for any file type — PDFs, images, feeds, and HTML. Use it when you need indexing control over non-HTML resources or when you cannot add a meta tag to the page. It accepts the same directives as the robots meta tag.
limitations
- Some bots and crawlers ignore X-Robots-Tag entirely. It is a hint, not a binding directive, and there is no enforcement mechanism beyond voluntary compliance by search engines.
- If a page is blocked by robots.txt, crawlers cannot see the X-Robots-Tag header at all. Use robots.txt and X-Robots-Tag as complementary layers, not alternatives.
- X-Robots-Tag is not an official IETF standard — it is a de-facto convention supported by Google, Bing, and most major search engines. Smaller or niche crawlers may not recognize it.
How to use this tool
- Select the directives you want to apply — common combinations are noindex, nofollow for pages to be excluded, and noarchive for content that should not be cached by search engines.
- Optionally specify a user-agent to target specific crawlers, or leave it empty for all bots.
- Copy the HTTP header and/or the HTML meta tag into your server configuration or page markup.
What you can use it for
- Noindex PDFs and other downloadable files that should not appear in search results.
- Prevent search engines from caching sensitive content with noarchive.
- Add noimageindex to a gallery page to prevent individual image indexing while keeping the page indexed.