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CW Freelance

Mastering SEO Meta Tags – A Freelance Guide to Robots Directives

  • Writer: CW Design
    CW Design
  • Sep 25
  • 3 min read

As a freelancer or content creator, you’ve probably heard about SEO meta tags - but do you really know how to use them to control your website’s visibility on Google?


Meta tags like noindex, nofollow, and nosnippet may look technical, but they’re powerful tools for protecting your content, managing client projects, and optimizing your online presence. Used correctly, they can help you decide what gets seen (and what doesn’t) in search results.


This guide breaks down the most important robots meta tags, explains when to use them, and shares freelance-specific tips to avoid costly SEO mistakes.


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🤖 What Are Robots Meta Tags?


Robots meta tags are snippets of code you place in the <head> of a webpage. They tell search engines how to crawl, index, and display your content.


For freelancers, this means you can:


  • Keep client-only content out of Google’s results

  • Protect premium assets or designs

  • Shape how your portfolio or blog posts appear in search


Think of them as your SEO gatekeepers.


🔑 Key SEO Meta Tags Explained


🔍 1. noindex


What it does: Prevents a page from being indexed by search engines.


Best for:

  • Thank-you or confirmation pages

  • Login or checkout pages

  • Duplicate or thin content

  • Test/staging environments


⚠️ Freelance Tip: Never apply this to your portfolio or blog by accident—you’ll disappear

from Google overnight.


🔗 2. nofollow


What it does: Tells search engines not to follow links on the page.


Best for:

  • Comment sections (to avoid spammy backlinks)

  • Paid or affiliate links (rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored")

  • User-generated content with untrusted links


⚠️ Freelance Tip: nofollow doesn’t hide your page - it just prevents passing SEO authority to other sites.


✂️ 3. nosnippet


What it does: Stops Google from showing a text snippet in search results.


Best for:

  • Sensitive or gated content

  • Legal or compliance-related pages


⚠️ Freelance Tip: Use carefully—snippets often drive clicks. Removing them can hurt your CTR.


🖼️ 4. noimageindex


What it does: Prevents your images from appearing in Google Images.


Best for:

  • Proprietary or copyrighted visuals

  • Premium design assets or client work


⚠️ Freelance Tip: If your portfolio relies on visual discovery, don’t block image indexing.


🗄️ 5. noarchive


What it does: Blocks search engines from storing a cached version of your page.


Best for:

  • Time-sensitive promotions

  • Client projects restricted by NDAs or copyrights


⚠️ Freelance Tip: This won’t affect rankings directly, but it keeps old or outdated versions out of public view.


🖼️ 6. max-image-preview


What it does: Controls how large your image thumbnails appear in search.


  • none = no preview

  • standard = default size\

  • large = full-size preview


⚠️ Freelance Tip: Set to large for blog posts and design showcases - bigger previews = more clicks.


✏️ 7. max-snippet


What it does: Limits the number of characters shown in a search snippet.


Example: max-snippet:150


Best for:

  • Controlling brand messaging

  • Preventing “spoilers” in your content


🎥 8. max-video-preview


What it does: Controls how much of your video is previewed in search results.


Best for:

  • Marketing videos (set to full preview: -1)

  • Gated or private videos (restrict preview length)


⚠️ Freelance Tip: Full previews can boost YouTube content or video showreels for clients.


✅ Example Tag for Sensitive Pages

<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow, nosnippet, noarchive, noimageindex, max-snippet:0, max-image-preview:none, max-video-preview:0">

🧠 Freelance Strategy Summary

Goal

Recommended Meta Tag Settings

🚀 Maximise visibility

index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1

🔐 Hide from Google

noindex, nofollow

🛡️ Protect content/IP

noindex, noimageindex, nosnippet, noarchive

🎯 Control SERP look

Use max-* directives strategically

💡 Final Thoughts


As a freelancer, you are your own SEO manager. Mastering robots meta tags allows you to:


  • Protect your intellectual property

  • Control what clients and prospects see in search results

  • Optimise visibility where it matters most


Next time you launch a client project, publish a case study, or build a course landing page—use these tags strategically. A few lines of code can mean the difference between getting discovered and going invisible.


 
 
 

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