The nosnippet robots directive explained
nosnippet is a Google robots directive that tells Google not to show any text snippet or video preview for a page in search results. This page explains where to set it, what it affects, and how it relates to the finer-grained max-snippet and data-nosnippet controls.
What nosnippet does
The nosnippet directive tells Google not to display a text snippet or video preview for the page in search results. The page can still be indexed and can still rank; it simply appears without the descriptive snippet that normally accompanies a result.
It is broader than max-snippet (which caps length) and data-nosnippet (which hides a portion). Use nosnippet when you want no snippet at all for the whole page.
- Suppresses the whole-page snippet and video preview
- Page can still be indexed and ranked
- Broader than max-snippet and data-nosnippet
Where to set it
In a meta robots tag:
<meta name="robots" content="nosnippet">
Or in the X-Robots-Tag header for any response, including non-HTML files:
X-Robots-Tag: nosnippet
You can scope it to a specific crawler by using that crawler's token instead of robots. As with all snippet directives, treat it as Google-specific unless another engine documents the same behavior.
How it appears in analytics and logs
nosnippet is an indexing directive read from your meta robots tag or X-Robots-Tag header, not a crawl signal. Its effect is the absence of a snippet in results, not a change in crawl frequency.
Diagnostic use case
Suppress the entire snippet for a page — for example a login or transactional page — while still letting the page be indexed and ranked.
What WebmasterID can help detect
WebmasterID reports crawler and bot traffic rather than snippet rendering, so nosnippet is context that helps you keep indexing-policy decisions separate from crawler-traffic analysis.
Common mistakes
- Using nosnippet when you actually want noindex — it still indexes the page.
- Expecting non-Google engines to honour nosnippet identically.
- Combining nosnippet with max-snippet and expecting both to apply meaningfully.
Privacy and accuracy notes
nosnippet controls how your own page is previewed. It involves no visitor data and is not an access-control mechanism.
Related pages
- The data-nosnippet attribute explained
data-nosnippet is a Google-supported HTML attribute that marks portions of a page so they are not used in search snippets. This page explains how to apply it, which elements support it, and how it differs from the page-level nosnippet directive.
- max-snippet and preview directives explained
max-snippet, max-image-preview, and max-video-preview are Google robots directives that cap how much of your content appears in result-page previews. This page explains the values each accepts, where to set them, and how they differ from blocking indexing.
- The noarchive robots directive explained
noarchive is a robots directive that asks search engines not to offer a cached copy of a page. This page explains where to set it, which engines historically honoured it, and why its practical relevance changed after Google retired its cache link.
- WebmasterID docs
How WebmasterID separates crawler signals from indexing policy.
Sources and verification notes
- Google — nosnippet directiveDocuments the nosnippet robots directive.
Last reviewed 2026-06-24. Facts are checked against primary/official sources where available; uncertain specifics are marked “Data not yet verified” rather than guessed.