As the heading says, Google has laid out a new robots tag which allows websites to have more control over the content that you wish to get indexed and appear in the SERPs of relevant searches.
And, that new robots tag is called “indexifembedded”. This tag here enables websites to inform Google about which content they should index and rank it in the search results.
When you use this tag on a certain page of a website, Google will understand that you want them to index that particular page or content even if the website has a noindex tag attached.
Google Page Recognition: Embedding with iframes and indexifembedded
Google will recognise that particular page if you embed the same using iframes as well as similar HTML tags along with indexifembedded.
So, in simpler words, even if you prohibit Google from entering or indexing a particular URL with a noindex tag, you can allow it to index a particular section of the same with an indexifembedded tag when that piece of content gets embedded on a different website.
Google says “…while they may want their content indexed when it’s embedded on third-party pages, they don’t necessarily want their media pages indexed on their own.” this will help a lot of content publishers as they often face issues with the same.
Usages of indexifembedded Tag
Now, you also need to consider the fact that this tag is not useful for every content publisher as it is effective only if the particular content has a distinct URL which can be used in order to embed it.
For example, if a podcast producer has each of the episodes of their podcast posted on their website with a separate URL, then they would be having links that solely direct to that specific media.
And, third-party websites would be able to embed media from the content publisher’s website on their very own webpages. So, if a third-party website wishes to refer to a particular podcast episode, they can easily do that with those links.
Now, if the podcast publisher does not want their media URLs appear in any Google search results, then they can easily make it happen by using a noindex tag.
But, the primary issue with the noindex tag is that it would be prohibiting other websites from embedding the media on their pages.
This refers to the fact that if the publisher allows embedding, then they would not be able to use the noindex tag. But, now having the indexifembedded tag in hand, they can control what content gets indexed and what not.
To use it, media publishers need to use an iframe or a similar HTML tag on their media file URL. This will make the indexifembedded tag override the noindex tag when the media gets embedded in the content of a different or third-party publisher.
How to Use?
You can use this robots tag in a couple of ways.
- Firstly, you can make use of the indexifembedded tag along with the noindex tag. This will let Google index your content when some third-party website embeds it on their webpage.
You can do the same, following the directions below.
<meta name=”googlebot” value=”noindex” />
<meta name=”googlebot” value=”indexifembedded” />
<!– OR –>
<meta name=”googlebot” value=”noindex,indexifembedded” />
- Also, you can mention this tag in your HTTP header.
Here is how you can do the same.
X-Robots-Tag: googlebot:noindex
X-Robots-Tag: googlebot:indexifembedded
…
OR
…
X-Robots-Tag: googlebot:noindex,indexifembedded
However, there is a catch while using this tag. The indexifembedded tag works only on Google. For more details, refer to the Google Search Central blog.
