Meta tag for robots

How many do I need?

[GaryK]

This is such a newbie question that I'm embarrassed to ask it. But I'd rather embarrass myself than remain ignorant so here goes.

For years I have used two robots meta tags:

<meta name="robots" content="noarchive">
<meta name="robots" content="index,follow">

Can I combine them into one tag:

<meta name="robots" content="noarchive,index,follow">

Thank you,
~gary.

[tedster]

I would not suggest combining the two. "noarchive" is not part of the meta robots standard but a relatively recent addition, tacked on as search engines began to offer cached pages. Because it's not part of the standard, you may not be presenting clear instructions to all spiders if you use anything other than what they are programmed to look for.

Reference: Robots Meta Tag standard [robotstxt.org]

[GaryK]

Thanks tedster.

[keyplyr]

Gary, you do not need the:

<meta name="robots" content="index,follow">

Since this is the default.

[tedster]

Ah, I should have mentioned that.

Many years ago, Inktomi's slurp seemed to use a default of (index,nofollow) and I got into the habit of always including (index, follow). Even today, I often still do it, just in case some second or third tier engine wants the explicit invitation -- but I sure don't know of any that need it now.

[GaryK]

The use of index,follow was just an example. My main focus really had to do with the noarchive value. Normally I make the decision about index/noindex, follow/nofollow on a page-by-page basis.

Thank you for your good intentions in bringing it to my attention though. :)