The unavailable_after robots directive explained
unavailable_after is a Google robots directive that tells Google to stop showing a page in search results after a given date and time. This page explains the date format, where to set it, and how it differs from noindex and from removing the page.
What unavailable_after does
unavailable_after tells Google not to show the page in search results after a date and time you specify. Before that moment the page behaves normally; after it, Google treats the page as if it were noindexed. The page itself remains on your server unless you also remove it.
It is useful for content with a known expiry, letting search visibility lapse on schedule rather than requiring you to add a noindex manually later.
- Drops the page from results after a specified date/time
- Behaves like noindex once the date passes
- Page still exists on your server unless you remove it
How to set it
Provide a date in a supported format such as RFC 822, RFC 850, or ISO 8601. In a meta robots tag:
<meta name="robots" content="unavailable_after: 2026-12-31T23:59:59-00:00">
Or via the X-Robots-Tag header:
X-Robots-Tag: unavailable_after: 2026-12-31T23:59:59-00:00
Google must recrawl the page to pick up the directive, so set it with enough lead time. It is a Google directive; do not assume other engines honour it.
How it appears in analytics and logs
unavailable_after is an indexing directive read from your meta robots tag or X-Robots-Tag header. It does not appear in logs; its effect is that Google stops showing the page after the specified moment.
Diagnostic use case
Schedule time-limited pages — such as event listings, limited offers, or expiring articles — to drop out of search results automatically after a set date without manual cleanup.
What WebmasterID can help detect
WebmasterID reports crawler traffic rather than scheduled deindexing, so unavailable_after is context that keeps expiry-policy decisions separate from crawler-traffic analysis.
Common mistakes
- Assuming the page disappears the instant the date passes, before Google recrawls.
- Using an unsupported date format.
- Expecting non-Google engines to honour unavailable_after.
Privacy and accuracy notes
unavailable_after schedules visibility of your own page. It involves no visitor data and is not an access-control mechanism.
Related pages
- The noindex meta tag
The noindex value of the meta robots tag tells search engines to keep a page out of their index. The catch trips people up constantly: for noindex to work, the crawler must be able to fetch the page — so you must not block the same URL in robots.txt.
- Meta robots directives reference
The robots meta tag and X-Robots-Tag header share a vocabulary of indexing directives. This page is a reference for the common ones — noindex, nofollow, noarchive, nosnippet, and the max-snippet family — explaining what each does and how to combine them.
- 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 records crawler activity, not indexing schedules.
Sources and verification notes
- Google — unavailable_after directiveDocuments the unavailable_after directive and accepted date formats.
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.