nosnippet
nosnippet kills the snippet for a whole page; data-nosnippet hides just one section. The scopes, the valid-HTML gotcha, and the AI Overviews angle.
nosnippet and data-nosnippet both suppress snippet text, at different scopes. nosnippet is a robots directive — a meta-robots value or an X-Robots-Tag header — that kills the snippet text and video preview for the whole page (though a static image thumbnail may still show), removes featured-snippet eligibility, and (per Google) drops the content as a direct input to AI Overviews and AI Mode. data-nosnippet is an HTML attribute, valid only on span/div/section, that hides just the wrapped section — from both regular and featured snippets — while the rest of the page stays eligible; it's a boolean attribute, the markup must be valid, closed HTML or an unclosed tag swallows everything after it, and structured data inside it stays usable. nosnippet equals max-snippet:0 for text; neither touches indexing or rankings; Bing supports nosnippet but documents no data-nosnippet. Google is also testing a separate property-level Search generative AI control in Search Console.
TL;DR — A snippet is the bit of descriptive text under your result in Google.
Evidence for this claim Google's nosnippet directive prevents a text snippet and video preview from being shown for the page in search results. Scope: Google Search presentation; it does not itself remove the URL from the index. Confidence: high · Verified: Google Search Central: Robots directives Evidence for this claim Google's data-nosnippet attribute can exclude text within span, div, and section elements from snippets. Scope: Section-level Google snippet control; valid, well-formed HTML is required. Confidence: high · Verified: Google Search Central: data-nosnippetnosnippettells Google to show no snippet text for the whole page — you get mostly just a title and URL (Google says a static image thumbnail can still show in some cases).data-nosnippetis more surgical: wrap one paragraph in it and only that paragraph is hidden from the snippet, while the rest of the page can still show. Neither one removes your page from Google or changes your rankings — they only change what shows in the listing.
What a snippet is, and the two ways to suppress it
When your page shows up in Google, the engine usually pulls a line or two of text to show under your link. That’s the snippet. By default Google writes it for you from whatever’s on the page.
Sometimes you don’t want that text shown — maybe it’s paywalled content, or something sensitive, or you simply don’t want Google lifting a chunk of your page into the results. You have two tools:
nosnippet— hides the snippet for the entire page. You add it as a robots meta tagThe robots meta tag is an HTML element in a page's head — <meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex\"> — that tells search engines how to index and serve that page. It's crawl-then-obey: a page blocked in robots.txt is never fetched, so the tag is never seen. (or send it as an HTTP header). The result is a bare listing: title and URL, no description.data-nosnippet— hides just one section. You add it as an attribute on aspan,div, orsectionaround the text you want kept out. Everything outside that wrapper can still be used in the snippet.
The page-level one: nosnippet
Drop this in the <head> and the whole page’s snippet goes away:
<meta name="robots" content="nosnippet">A couple of things to know: this also takes you out of featured snippets (the boxed answer at the top), and Google says it removes your content as a direct input to AI OverviewsAI Overviews are the AI-generated summary box Google shows above or within its regular search results, written by Gemini models from pages retrieved out of Google's normal Search index. It's a Search feature, not a separate platform or index. and AI Mode. The trade-off is that your normal listing now looks a bit bare — no description under the link (a small image thumbnail can still show, but the text is gone).
The section-level one: data-nosnippet
Wrap the text you want to keep out of the snippet:
<p>This part can show in a snippet
<span data-nosnippet>but this part won't</span>.</p>The most important catch: the HTML has to be valid and properly closed. If you forget to close the tag, Google’s own warning is that it’ll include all the content after it anyway — so the protection silently fails.
What it does not do
nosnippet and data-nosnippet don’t remove your page from Google and don’t
change your rankings. The page still indexes and still ranks — it just shows
without the snippet text. If you actually want a page gone, that’s a different
control (a noindex on the robots meta tagThe robots meta tag is an HTML element in a page's head — <meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex\"> — that tells search engines how to index and serve that page. It's crawl-then-obey: a page blocked in robots.txt is never fetched, so the tag is never seen., covered elsewhere).
Want the exact spec language, the max-snippet:0 equivalence, the AI-Overviews
lag, and the Bing caveat? Switch to the Advanced tab.
TL;DR —
Evidence for this claim Google's nosnippet directive prevents a text snippet and video preview from being shown for the page in search results. Scope: Google Search presentation; it does not itself remove the URL from the index. Confidence: high · Verified: Google Search Central: Robots directives Evidence for this claim Google's data-nosnippet attribute can exclude text within span, div, and section elements from snippets. Scope: Section-level Google snippet control; valid, well-formed HTML is required. Confidence: high · Verified: Google Search Central: data-nosnippetnosnippetis a robots directive (<meta name="robots" content="nosnippet">or anX-Robots-Tag: nosnippetheader) that suppresses the text snippet and the video preview for the whole page, removes featured-snippet eligibility, and — per Google — drops the content as a direct input to AI OverviewsAI Overviews are the AI-generated summary box Google shows above or within its regular search results, written by Gemini models from pages retrieved out of Google's normal Search index. It's a Search feature, not a separate platform or index. and AI Mode. For text it equalsmax-snippet:0, and on conflict the more restrictive rule wins (nosnippetbeatsmax-snippet:50).data-nosnippetis an HTML attribute, valid only onspan/div/section, that excludes one section — from both regular and featured snippets; it’s boolean (any value is ignored), the markup must be valid, closed HTML or an unclosed tag swallows everything after it, and structured dataStructured data is a standardized way of labeling page content (using the schema.org vocabulary in JSON-LD, Microdata, or RDFa) so search engines can understand its meaning. It's not a direct ranking factor — its value is rich results and entity understanding. inside it stays usable. Neither touches indexingStoring a crawled page in the search index so it can appear in results. Crawled is not the same as indexed — Google selects what to keep, and indexing isn't guaranteed. or rankings, andnosnippetdoesn’t guarantee zero visuals (a static image thumbnail may still show). Bing honorsnosnippet; it documents nodata-nosnippet.
Two controls, two scopes
Nosnippet is a page-level robots directive that removes the whole text snippet and video preview and prevents direct use in Google AI features. Data-nosnippet is an attribute on a span, div, or section that excludes only the properly wrapped valid HTML. Both control display rather than indexing or ranking.
The whole thing comes down to scope. nosnippet works at the page level;
data-nosnippet works at the section level. People reach for the wrong one
constantly, so keep this straight:
nosnippet— a value in a robots meta tagThe robots meta tag is an HTML element in a page's head — <meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex\"> — that tells search engines how to index and serve that page. It's crawl-then-obey: a page blocked in robots.txt is never fetched, so the tag is never seen. or theX-Robots-Tagheader. Whole-page suppression.data-nosnippet— an HTML attribute onspan/div/section. One-section suppression.
Both are display controls. They sit alongside the rest of the robots meta tagThe robots meta tag is an HTML element in a page's head — <meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex\"> — that tells search engines how to index and serve that page. It's crawl-then-obey: a page blocked in robots.txt is never fetched, so the tag is never seen.
family and the X-Robots-Tag header, and they’re the suppression cousins of
the max-snippet / max-image-preview length controls.
nosnippet — the page-level robots directive
Syntax (meta tag and header)
In HTML, you set it on the robots meta tag:
<meta name="robots" content="nosnippet">For anything that isn’t HTML — PDFs, images, other files where you can’t add a
<head> — you send it as an HTTP response header instead:
X-Robots-Tag: nosnippetSame directive, two delivery mechanisms. The header route is the only way to reach non-HTML resources.
What it actually removes
Google’s spec is plain: nosnippet means “Do not show a text snippet or video
preview in the search results for this page.” That’s broader than it sounds. Per
the same doc, it “applies to all forms of search results (at Google: web search,
Google Images, Discover, AI OverviewsAI Overviews are the AI-generated summary box Google shows above or within its regular search results, written by Gemini models from pages retrieved out of Google's normal Search index. It's a Search feature, not a separate platform or index., AI Mode) and will also prevent the content
from being used as a direct input for AI Overviews and AI Mode.”
So one directive does four things:
- Removes the text snippet.
- Removes the video preview.
- Removes featured-snippet eligibility — Google says if you want a guaranteed
way out of featured snippets,
nosnippetis it. - Removes the content as a direct input to AI Overviews and AI Mode.
One qualification worth knowing: nosnippet doesn’t guarantee a completely bare
listing. Google’s spec adds that “a static image thumbnail (if available) may
still be visible, when it results in a better user experience.” So you’re
guaranteed no text snippet and no video preview — not necessarily zero visuals.
If you don’t set it, the default is that “Google may generate a text snippet and video preview based on information foundA 302 (\"Found\") is a temporary redirect: it forwards users to a new URL while telling search engines the original URL should stay in the index. It's a weak canonicalization signal, not the zero-equity dead end of SEO folklore. on the page.”
Relationship to max-snippet:0
nosnippet is functionally equivalent to max-snippet:0 for text — Google
documents that 0 for max-snippet means “No snippet is to be shown. Equivalent
to nosnippet.” The difference is that max-snippet also takes positive values
(cap the snippet at N characters) where nosnippet is all-or-nothing.
When robots rules conflict, the more restrictive one applies. Google’s own
example: “if a page has both max-snippet:50 and nosnippet rules, the
nosnippet rule will apply.”
data-nosnippet — the section-level HTML attribute
Syntax and the official example
You designate a chunk of text to be kept out of the snippet by putting the
attribute on the element that wraps it. Google: “You can designate textual parts
of an HTML page not to be used as a snippet. This can be done on an HTML-element
level with the data-nosnippet HTML attribute on span, div, and section
elements.” Those three elements are the whole allowed list — it does not work
on arbitrary tags.
Here’s Google’s own example, verbatim:
<p>This text can be shown in a snippet
<span data-nosnippet>and this part would not be shown</span>.</p>
<div data-nosnippet>not in snippet</div>
<div data-nosnippet="true">also not in snippet</div>
<div data-nosnippet="false">also not in snippet</div>
<!-- all values are ignored -->
<div data-nosnippet>some text</html>
<!-- unclosed "div" will include all content afterwards -->It’s a boolean attribute
Notice the ="true" and ="false" lines above behave identically. That’s
because, in Google’s words, “The data-nosnippet is considered a boolean
attribute. As with all boolean attributes, any value specified is ignored.”
Presence is what matters — don’t bother giving it a value, and don’t assume
="false" turns it off. It doesn’t.
The valid-HTML requirement (the failure mode)
This is the part almost nobody covers, and it’s the most common reason
data-nosnippet silently doesn’t work. Google parses the attribute from rendered
markup, so: “To ensure machine-readability, the HTML section must be valid HTML
and all appropriate tags must be closed accordingly.”
Look at the last line of Google’s example again — <div data-nosnippet>some text</html>. The div is never closed, and Google’s comment spells out the
result: the “unclosed div will include all content afterwards.” In other
words, an unclosed protected region doesn’t hide more, it hides nothing —
everything after the open tag leaks back into the snippet. If your
data-nosnippet isn’t taking, check that the wrapping element is actually closed.
The JavaScript caveat
One more from the spec: “To avoid uncertainty from renderingTurning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript into the final visual page and DOM., do not add or
remove the data-nosnippet attribute of existing nodes through JavaScript.” Put
it in the server-rendered HTML and leave it there. Toggling it client-side
introduces exactly the kind of renderingTurning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript into the final visual page and DOM. ambiguity the valid-HTML rule is trying
to prevent. Building elements dynamically is fine — Google’s guidance is to set
the attribute at creation time, not to mutate existing nodes: “When adding DOM
elements through JavaScript, include the data-nosnippet attribute as necessary
when initially adding the element to the page’s DOM.”
It excludes featured snippets too, and structured data still works inside it
The section-level exclusion isn’t limited to regular snippets — a section wrapped
in data-nosnippet is also kept out of featured snippets. And if a page
carries both a page-level nosnippet and a section-level data-nosnippet, the
page-level rule is the more restrictive one, so it takes priority for the whole
page.
data-nosnippet also doesn’t touch structured data the way you might assume:
Google says “structured data remains usable for search results when declared
within a data-nosnippet element.” Don’t generalize the attribute past text
snippet eligibility — it isn’t an access-control mechanism and it doesn’t hide
images or other media on the page; it only keeps the wrapped text out of snippet
selection (with the documented max-snippet/description-field nuances Google
covers for structured data separately).
Which one to use
The decision is almost always about scope and intent:
- Hide the whole snippet (and exit featured snippets / AI Overviews for the
page) →
nosnippet. - Hide just one paragraph or block while the rest of the page keeps its
snippet →
data-nosnippet. - Just shorten the snippet rather than kill it → that’s
max-snippet:N, the length control, not these. - Apply it to a PDF or other non-HTML file →
X-Robots-Tag: nosnippet, since there’s no<head>to put a meta tag in.
Removing content from AI Overviews
The 2025–2026 reason a lot of people land on this topic is AI Overviews. The
mechanics work — nosnippet and data-nosnippet do remove content as a direct
input — but expect latency. In Glenn Gabe’s case study, nosnippet pulled his
content out of an AI Overview quickly, but the effect was initially short-lived
and the content reappeared before it settled; after John Mueller weighed in, the
removal did ultimately stick — it just took longer to fully process. So if you
apply it and the content’s still showing, give it time before assuming it failed.
And mind the trade-off Gabe flagged: whole-page nosnippet also strips your
normal snippet, leaving an awkward, description-less listing in the ten blue
links. If you only need to remove part of the content from AI surfaces,
section-level data-nosnippet (or a max-snippet cap) is the gentler lever.
There’s also a newer, separate control worth knowing about: Google is testing a
property-level “Search generative AI” control in Search ConsoleA free Google service that reports how a site performs in Google Search and surfaces problems with how Google crawls, indexes, and serves it. It's first-party data straight from Google — but you don't need it to appear in results. — an
include/exclude/inherit setting that scopes to AI Overviews, AI Mode, and
generative AI in Discover. It’s distinct from page-level nosnippet (which is a
per-page HTML/header rule) and from Google-Extended (which governs AI
training and groundingGrounding is anchoring an AI model's answer to source documents it retrieves at the moment you ask — not to the patterns frozen into its weights during training. Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) is the most common way to do it., not Search preview eligibility). The rollout is
limited, and per Google, propagation of a change can take a day or two, or
longer. Don’t reach for it as your default — it’s a Search ConsoleGoogle's free tool for monitoring crawling, indexing, and search performance. setting layered
on top of the page-level controls above, not a replacement for them.
Bing and other engines
A parity caveat worth saying out loud: Bing supports nosnippet (and the
snippet-length controls), but Bing does not document data-nosnippet. The
section-level attribute appears to be Google-specific. If you need section-level
snippet control to hold everywhere, only Google guarantees it — don’t assume Bing
honors a data-nosnippet wrapper.
Apple documents a different, useful boundary: with nosnippet, Apple can still
use a page’s title for matching and discovery, but it will not use the page
content as context for generative models. That is an Apple-specific use-control
notice, not a generic claim that nosnippet removes the URL from discovery.
The cost you’re accepting
It’s worth being honest that snippet eligibility is a real, losable asset. I
learned that the blunt way with The Story of Blocking 2 High-Ranking Pages With
Robots.txt — when I blocked two of our ranking pages in robots.txt, the most
visible casualty was that they lost all of their featured snippets. That was
robots.txtA plain-text file at the root of a host that tells crawlers which URLs they may and may not request. It controls crawling, not indexing — a blocked URL can still be indexed if it's linked from elsewhere., not nosnippet, but the lesson transfers: giving up snippet
eligibility is a deliberate cost. The difference is that nosnippet and
data-nosnippet let you give it up precisely — whole page or one section, on
purpose — instead of as collateral damage from a crawl block. Spend it where it’s
worth spending.
AI summary
A condensed take on the Advanced version:
- Two controls, two scopes.
nosnippet= whole-page robots directive;data-nosnippet= section-level HTML attribute. nosnippetgoes in the robots meta tagThe robots meta tag is an HTML element in a page's head — <meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex\"> — that tells search engines how to index and serve that page. It's crawl-then-obey: a page blocked in robots.txt is never fetched, so the tag is never seen. (<meta name="robots" content="nosnippet">) or theX-Robots-Tag: nosnippetheader (the header is the route for non-HTML like PDFs). It removes the text snippet and video preview, removes featured-snippet eligibility, and — per Google — drops the content as a direct input to AI OverviewsAI Overviews are the AI-generated summary box Google shows above or within its regular search results, written by Gemini models from pages retrieved out of Google's normal Search index. It's a Search feature, not a separate platform or index. and AI Mode.nosnippet≈max-snippet:0for text; on conflict the more restrictive rule wins (nosnippetbeatsmax-snippet:50).data-nosnippetis valid only onspan,div,section. It’s a boolean attribute —="true"/="false"/no value all behave the same. The markup must be valid, closed HTML; an unclosed tag includes everything after it (the protection fails). Don’t toggle it on existing nodes via JavaScript — set it when a node is first created instead. It excludes wrapped text from both regular and featured snippets, and structured dataStructured data is a standardized way of labeling page content (using the schema.org vocabulary in JSON-LD, Microdata, or RDFa) so search engines can understand its meaning. It's not a direct ranking factor — its value is rich results and entity understanding. inside it stays usable.nosnippetdoesn’t guarantee zero visuals — a static image thumbnail may still show “when it results in a better user experience,” per Google.- Neither affects indexingStoring a crawled page in the search index so it can appear in results. Crawled is not the same as indexed — Google selects what to keep, and indexing isn't guaranteed. or rankings — display-only; the page still ranks, just without snippet text.
- AI OverviewsAI Overviews are the AI-generated summary box Google shows above or within its regular search results, written by Gemini models from pages retrieved out of Google's normal Search index. It's a Search feature, not a separate platform or index. removal works but lags (Gabe/Mueller); whole-page
nosnippetalso strips your normal snippet, leaving a bare listing — section-leveldata-nosnippetis gentler. Google is also testing a separate, property-level Search generative AI control in Search ConsoleA free Google service that reports how a site performs in Google Search and surfaces problems with how Google crawls, indexes, and serves it. It's first-party data straight from Google — but you don't need it to appear in results. (limited rollout) for AI Overviews/AI Mode/Discover, distinct from page-levelnosnippetand fromGoogle-Extended. - Bing honors
nosnippet;data-nosnippetis documented by Google only.
Official documentation
Primary-source documentation from the search engines.
- Robots meta tag, data-nosnippet, and X-Robots-Tag specifications — the definitive spec for
nosnippet, thedata-nosnippetrules, the official example, and themax-snippet:0equivalence. - Featured snippets and your website — how to opt a page out of featured snippets (
nosnippetis the guaranteed method). - Top ways to ensure your content performs well in Google’s AI experiences on Search — Search Central blog, May 2025; lists
nosnippet/data-nosnippet/max-snippet/noindexas the preview controls for AI experiences. - Search generative AI control — Google Search ConsoleA free Google service that reports how a site performs in Google Search and surfaces problems with how Google crawls, indexes, and serves it. It's first-party data straight from Google — but you don't need it to appear in results. Help; the newer property-level include/exclude/inherit setting for AI OverviewsAI Overviews are the AI-generated summary box Google shows above or within its regular search results, written by Gemini models from pages retrieved out of Google's normal Search index. It's a Search feature, not a separate platform or index., AI Mode, and generative AI in Discover, separate from page-level
nosnippetand fromGoogle-Extended.
Bing / Microsoft
- Announcing new options for webmasters to control their snippets at Bing — Bing WebmasterMicrosoft's free portal for monitoring and improving how a site appears in Bing search — the peer to Google Search Console, plus IndexNow instant indexing, richer backlink data, and keyword volumes. Because Bing's index also feeds Microsoft Copilot, it doubles as a window into AI-search visibility. Blog, April 2020; confirms Bing supports the
nosnippetmeta tag and the length controls (max-snippet,max-image-preview,max-video-preview). Note: nodata-nosnippet. - Robots meta tags and attributes that Bing supports — Bing’s live help page (JS-rendered).
Quotes from the source
On-the-record statements from Google. Each link is a deep link that jumps to the quoted passage on the source page.
Google — nosnippet (robots meta tagThe robots meta tag is an HTML element in a page's head — <meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex\"> — that tells search engines how to index and serve that page. It's crawl-then-obey: a page blocked in robots.txt is never fetched, so the tag is never seen. spec)
- “Do not show a text snippet or video preview in the search results for this page.” — Google Search Central docs. Jump to quote
- “This applies to all forms of search results (at Google: web search, Google Images, Discover, AI OverviewsAI Overviews are the AI-generated summary box Google shows above or within its regular search results, written by Gemini models from pages retrieved out of Google's normal Search index. It's a Search feature, not a separate platform or index., AI Mode) and will also prevent the content from being used as a direct input for AI OverviewsAI Overviews are the AI-generated summary box Google shows above or within its regular search results, written by Gemini models from pages retrieved out of Google's normal Search index. It's a Search feature, not a separate platform or index. and AI Mode.” Jump to quote
- “If you don’t specify this rule, Google may generate a text snippet and video preview based on information foundA 302 (\"Found\") is a temporary redirect: it forwards users to a new URL while telling search engines the original URL should stay in the index. It's a weak canonicalization signal, not the zero-equity dead end of SEO folklore. on the page.” Jump to quote
- “A static image thumbnail (if available) may still be visible, when it results in a better user experience.” Jump to quote
Google — data-nosnippet (robots meta tagThe robots meta tag is an HTML element in a page's head — <meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex\"> — that tells search engines how to index and serve that page. It's crawl-then-obey: a page blocked in robots.txt is never fetched, so the tag is never seen. spec)
- “You can designate textual parts of an HTML page not to be used as a snippet. This can be done on an HTML-element level with the
data-nosnippetHTML attribute onspan,div, andsectionelements.” Jump to quote - “As with all boolean attributes, any value specified is ignored.” Jump to quote
- “To ensure machine-readability, the HTML section must be valid HTML and all appropriate tags must be closed accordingly.” Jump to quote
- “To avoid uncertainty from renderingTurning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript into the final visual page and DOM., do not add or remove the
data-nosnippetattribute of existing nodes through JavaScript.” Jump to quote - “When adding DOM elements through JavaScript, include the
data-nosnippetattribute as necessary when initially adding the element to the page’s DOM.” Jump to quote - “Structured dataStructured data is a standardized way of labeling page content (using the schema.org vocabulary in JSON-LD, Microdata, or RDFa) so search engines can understand its meaning. It's not a direct ranking factor — its value is rich results and entity understanding. remains usable for search results when declared within a
data-nosnippetelement.” Jump to quote
Google — max-snippet equivalence & conflict resolution
- “No snippet is to be shown. Equivalent to
nosnippet.” Jump to quote - “In the case of conflicting robots rules, the more restrictive rule applies. For example, if a page has both
max-snippet:50andnosnippetrules, thenosnippetrule will apply.” Jump to quote
Google — featured snippets opt-out
- “If you need a guaranteed solution, use the
nosnippetrule.” — Google, “Featured snippets and your website.” Jump to quote
Google — AI searchAI search uses large language models and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to synthesize an answer from multiple sources rather than returning a ranked list of links. Examples include Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT Search, and Perplexity. preview controls
- “Make use of
nosnippet,data-nosnippet,max-snippet, ornoindexto set your display preferences. More restrictive permissions will limit how your content is featured in our AI experiences.” — Google Search Central Blog, May 2025. Jump to quote
nosnippet is supported and data-nosnippet is not
mentioned. The Search ConsoleA free Google service that reports how a site performs in Google Search and surfaces problems with how Google crawls, indexes, and serves it. It's first-party data straight from Google — but you don't need it to appear in results. “Search generative AI control” description above
is summarized, not quoted verbatim — the live help page blocked automated
fetching with a botA crawler — also called a spider or bot — is an automated program that fetches web pages, extracts their links, and queues new URLs to visit. Search engines use crawlers to discover and download content for their index.-check page during this update pass; re-verify its exact
wording in-browser before quoting it directly. Snippet-suppression cheat sheet
nosnippet vs data-nosnippet vs max-snippet:0
| Control | Scope | Where it goes | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
nosnippet | Whole page | Robots meta tagThe robots meta tag is an HTML element in a page's head — <meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex\"> — that tells search engines how to index and serve that page. It's crawl-then-obey: a page blocked in robots.txt is never fetched, so the tag is never seen. (content="nosnippet") or X-Robots-Tag: nosnippet header | No text snippet, no video preview; out of featured snippets; out of AI OverviewsAI Overviews are the AI-generated summary box Google shows above or within its regular search results, written by Gemini models from pages retrieved out of Google's normal Search index. It's a Search feature, not a separate platform or index./AI Mode as a direct input |
data-nosnippet | One section | HTML attribute on a span, div, or section element | Hides only the wrapped text; rest of page stays eligible |
max-snippet:0 | Whole page | Robots meta tagThe robots meta tag is an HTML element in a page's head — <meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex\"> — that tells search engines how to index and serve that page. It's crawl-then-obey: a page blocked in robots.txt is never fetched, so the tag is never seen. (content="max-snippet:0") or header | Same as nosnippet for text (0 = “equivalent to nosnippet”) |
Quick rules
nosnippet≈max-snippet:0for text. On conflict, the more restrictive rule wins —nosnippetbeatsmax-snippet:50.data-nosnippetis boolean:="true",="false", and bare all behave identically (value ignored).data-nosnippetrequires valid, closed HTML — an unclosed tag leaks everything after it back into the snippet.- Don’t add/remove
data-nosnippeton existing nodes via JavaScript; set it when a node is first created if you’re building markup dynamically. data-nosnippetalso excludes wrapped text from featured snippets; page-levelnosnippettakes priority over it when a page has both.- Structured dataStructured data is a standardized way of labeling page content (using the schema.org vocabulary in JSON-LD, Microdata, or RDFa) so search engines can understand its meaning. It's not a direct ranking factor — its value is rich results and entity understanding. inside a
data-nosnippetelement stays usable — the attribute doesn’t hide images, other media, or structured data, only snippet-eligible text. nosnippetdoesn’t guarantee zero visuals — a static image thumbnail can still show when it improves the result.- PDFs / non-HTML → header only:
X-Robots-Tag: nosnippet. - None of these affect indexingStoring a crawled page in the search index so it can appear in results. Crawled is not the same as indexed — Google selects what to keep, and indexing isn't guaranteed. or rankings — display only.
- Bing: supports
nosnippet+ length controls; no documenteddata-nosnippet. - A newer, separate Search ConsoleA free Google service that reports how a site performs in Google Search and surfaces problems with how Google crawls, indexes, and serves it. It's first-party data straight from Google — but you don't need it to appear in results. “Search generative AI” control (testing,
limited rollout) scopes to AI OverviewsAI Overviews are the AI-generated summary box Google shows above or within its regular search results, written by Gemini models from pages retrieved out of Google's normal Search index. It's a Search feature, not a separate platform or index./AI Mode/Discover at the property level
— distinct from page-level
nosnippetand fromGoogle-Extended.
“Which do I want?”
- Whole snippet gone (and out of featured snippets / AI Overviews) →
nosnippet. - One paragraph hidden, rest still shows →
data-nosnippet. - Just shorten it →
max-snippet:N(the length control, not these).
Snippet-control mistakes to avoid
- Using
nosnippetwhen only one sensitive section needs exclusion. - Expecting
data-nosnippetto prevent crawlingCrawling is how search engines use automated bots (like Googlebot and Bingbot) to discover URLs and download pages. A page has to be crawlable to be indexed, but crawling on its own isn't a ranking factor., indexingStoring a crawled page in the search index so it can appear in results. Crawled is not the same as indexed — Google selects what to keep, and indexing isn't guaranteed., or page access. - Adding the attribute to invalid markup or only after delayed client renderingTurning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript into the final visual page and DOM..
- Blocking the page in robots.txtA plain-text file at the root of a host that tells crawlers which URLs they may and may not request. It controls crawling, not indexing — a blocked URL can still be indexed if it's linked from elsewhere. so crawlersA crawler — also called a spider or bot — is an automated program that fetches web pages, extracts their links, and queues new URLs to visit. Search engines use crawlers to discover and download content for their index. cannot read the directive.
- Suppressing snippets without accepting the potential click-through tradeoff.
- Assuming
data-nosnippethides images, other media, or structured dataStructured data is a standardized way of labeling page content (using the schema.org vocabulary in JSON-LD, Microdata, or RDFa) so search engines can understand its meaning. It's not a direct ranking factor — its value is rich results and entity understanding. on the page — it only excludes the wrapped text from snippet selection. - Assuming
nosnippetguarantees zero visuals in the listing — a static image thumbnail can still show even withnosnippetset.
Common snippet-control issues
Text still appears in a snippet
Cause: data-nosnippet is on the wrong element, invalid markup, or unavailable when rendered. Fix: inspect the rendered element and move the boolean attribute onto valid div, span, or section markup around the exact text.
The entire result loses its description
Cause: page-level nosnippet or equivalent suppression was used. Fix: remove it and use section-level data-nosnippet if only part of the page needs exclusion.
A change does not appear immediately
Cause: search output updates after recrawling and processing. Fix: validate the live markup first, then monitor after a recrawlCrawl frequency is how often a search engine comes back to re-fetch a page it already knows about. Popular pages that change often get refreshed many times a day; stable pages can go weeks or months between crawls — and you influence it indirectly, not by setting a dial. instead of repeatedly changing directives.
Which snippet control fits?
Choose a snippet-suppression control
Test yourself
Working examples
Suppress the whole page (HTML)
<head>
<meta name="robots" content="nosnippet">
</head>Suppress the whole page (non-HTML, e.g. a PDF)
X-Robots-Tag: nosnippetHide one inline phrase, keep the rest
<p>This text can be shown in a snippet
<span data-nosnippet>and this part would not be shown</span>.</p>Hide a whole block (div or section)
<div data-nosnippet>
Internal pricing notes that shouldn't appear in the search snippet.
</div>
<section data-nosnippet>
<p>An entire region kept out of the snippet.</p>
</section>Boolean — these are all identical (value ignored)
<div data-nosnippet>not in snippet</div>
<div data-nosnippet="true">also not in snippet</div>
<div data-nosnippet="false">also not in snippet — value is ignored</div>The failure mode — never do this
<div data-nosnippet>some text</html>
<!-- unclosed "div": everything after it leaks back into the snippet -->Close every data-nosnippet element. If the markup isn’t valid, Google can’t read
the boundary and the protection silently fails.
Adding it dynamically — set it at creation, not after
// Do this: include the attribute when you first create the node
const el = document.createElement('div');
el.setAttribute('data-nosnippet', '');
document.body.appendChild(el);
// Don't do this: add/remove it on a node that's already in the DOM
existingEl.setAttribute('data-nosnippet', ''); // rendering uncertaintynosnippet & data-nosnippet
nosnippet is a robots directive (meta tag or X-Robots-Tag header) that suppresses all snippet text and the video preview for a whole page; data-nosnippet is an HTML attribute on span, div, or section that excludes just that section from the snippet.
Related: max-snippet & max-image-preview, Robots Meta Tag, X-Robots-Tag
nosnippet & data-nosnippet
nosnippet and data-nosnippet are the two controls Google gives you for suppressing snippet text — the descriptive copy (and video preview) shown under your search result. They do related jobs at very different scopes.
nosnippet is a robots directive — a value you set in a <meta name="robots"> tag or in the X-Robots-Tag HTTP header (the header is how you reach non-HTML files like PDFs). It removes the snippet for the whole page: no text snippet, no video preview, and — the part people miss — it also makes the page ineligible for featured snippets and, per Google, removes the content as a direct input to AI OverviewsAI Overviews are the AI-generated summary box Google shows above or within its regular search results, written by Gemini models from pages retrieved out of Google's normal Search index. It's a Search feature, not a separate platform or index. and AI Mode. It doesn’t guarantee a completely bare listing, though — Google notes a static image thumbnail may still show “when it results in a better user experience.” For text it’s functionally equivalent to max-snippet:0, and when robots rules conflict the more restrictive one wins, so nosnippet beats a max-snippet:50.
data-nosnippet is an HTML attribute you place on a span, div, or section element to exclude just that section of the page from the snippet — from both regular and featured snippets — while the rest of the page stays eligible. It’s a boolean attribute — ="true", ="false", or no value all behave identically because any value is ignored — and Google parses it from the rendered HTML, so the marked-up region must be valid, properly closed HTML. An unclosed tag leaks everything after it out of the protected region. Structured dataStructured data is a standardized way of labeling page content (using the schema.org vocabulary in JSON-LD, Microdata, or RDFa) so search engines can understand its meaning. It's not a direct ranking factor — its value is rich results and entity understanding. declared inside a data-nosnippet element stays usable; the attribute doesn’t hide images or other media, only snippet-eligible text.
Neither control affects indexingStoring a crawled page in the search index so it can appear in results. Crawled is not the same as indexed — Google selects what to keep, and indexing isn't guaranteed. or ranking: the page still ranks, it just shows without snippet text (a bare title-and-URL listing, thumbnail aside). Bing honors nosnippet, but data-nosnippet is documented by Google only. For length limits rather than full suppression, see the neighboring max-snippetmax-snippet, max-image-preview, and max-video-preview are robots directives that tell Google and Bing how much of a page they may show in a result — the snippet length, image-preview size, and video-preview duration — without affecting whether the page is indexed. / max-image-preview controls.
Related: max-snippet & max-image-preview, Robots Meta Tag, X-Robots-Tag
Build-time retrieval analysis plus live signals for this exact article. The automatic chunk report includes a deterministic readiness score and is ready without a model download.
Search Console
sampleGA4 traffic (28d)
sampleCloudflare traffic (7d)
sampledCrUX field data (28d, phone)
sampleGoogle NLP entities
localChangelog
Updated Jul 19, 2026.
Editorial summary and recorded change details.Summary
Added Apple's title-discovery versus generative-model-context boundary for nosnippet.
Change details
-
Added an Apple-specific use-control notice without implying nosnippet removes the URL from discovery.
Full comparison unavailable — no prior snapshot was archived for this revision.
Updated Jul 18, 2026.
Editorial summary and recorded change details.Summary
Added the static-image-thumbnail exception to nosnippet, the structured-data and featured-snippet interactions for data-nosnippet, the dynamic-node JavaScript guidance, and the new Search Console generative-AI opt-out control.
Change details
-
nosnippet no longer implied a fully bare listing — added Google's static-image-thumbnail caveat to the beginner and advanced lenses, cheat sheet, glossary, and quiz-relevant sections.
-
Documented that data-nosnippet also excludes wrapped text from featured snippets (not just regular snippets), that page-level nosnippet takes priority when both are present, and that structured data inside a data-nosnippet element stays usable.
-
Added Google's guidance to set data-nosnippet at DOM-node creation time when building markup dynamically, instead of only warning against mutating existing nodes.
-
Added the newer property-level Search generative AI control in Search Console (limited rollout, testing) as a control distinct from page-level nosnippet and from Google-Extended.
Full comparison unavailable — no prior snapshot was archived for this revision.