Page set to nosnippet

What it is

The page’s robots meta tag includes nosnippet, for example <meta name="robots" content="nosnippet">. It asks search engines to list the page without the usual preview: no text extract under the title and no video preview. The page can still be indexed and ranked, but its listing shows little more than the title and URL.

Why it matters

Google applies nosnippet  to all its result types, AI Overviews and AI Mode included, and says it also stops the content being used as a direct input for them. A page must be eligible for a snippet  to be a supporting link there, so the rule takes the page out of those answers. In ordinary results, a listing without a description is likely to draw fewer clicks. Google offers finer controls for holding back only part of a page.

How Asky checks it

Asky reads every robots and googlebot meta tag in the page’s raw HTML, with the name in any letter case, splits their combined content at commas and spaces and reports the page when one value is nosnippet or max-snippet:0, which Google treats the same way, in any letter case. The data-nosnippet attribute on page elements is not read, and neither are tags for other crawlers or the X-Robots-Tag HTTP header. It is reported as an opportunity because the rule can be intended. Other rules in the same tag raise their own issues.

Reported as an opportunity with low severity.

How to fix it

1. Decide whether the whole page really has to stay out of previews.
2. To leave it as it is: if a contract, licence or legal reason rules out any preview of the page, mark the issue resolved.
3. Otherwise remove nosnippet from the tag. If nothing remains, delete the tag.
4. To hide only certain passages, such as member-only text or personal details, put data-nosnippet on the div, section or span elements that hold them instead.
5. To cap the preview length rather than remove it, use max-snippet with a number of characters, such as max-snippet:160. Avoid max-snippet:0, which means the same as nosnippet and is reported the same way.
6. Write a meta description that summarises the page, since Google may use it as the snippet.
7. Check the X-Robots-Tag response header too, since a nosnippet there also applies and Asky does not read it.

Example

https://example.com/blog/pricing-guide hid its whole preview to keep one price table out of search results:

<!-- Before -->
<meta name="robots" content="nosnippet">
 
<!-- After: only the table is held back -->
<meta name="robots" content="max-snippet:160">
<div data-nosnippet>
  <p>Enterprise plan: 1,200 euros per month.</p>
</div>

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