Do your robots directives let AI assistants quote and preview your content?
Restrictive snippet directives prevent AI assistants from quoting your pages, even when your content would have been the best answer.
What this signal tests
We check whether your indexable pages set any directive that limits how much text or imagery a search or AI assistant can show in its results. Directives like nosnippet, max-snippet set to zero, and max-image-preview set to none all prevent your content from being quoted or thumbnailed in AI Overviews, Bing Copilot, Perplexity, and similar interfaces.
Why it matters for your visibility in AI
AI search interfaces inherit the same snippet directives that classic search engines do. A page with nosnippet might still be indexed, but the AI assistant cannot quote any of its text in the answer - so even if your content is the best source, the assistant gives a generic answer without your page surfaced, or quotes a competitor that did not restrict snippets. This is one of the most common accidental self-inflicted wounds. Many SEO plugins shipped restrictive defaults years ago to prevent Google from showing too much of a page; those settings now block AI Overviews from showing anything at all. Sites that audit and remove these old restrictions often see immediate gains in AI citation frequency because they are suddenly allowed to be quoted.
Pass criteria at a glance
| Criterion | Passes when |
|---|---|
| >=95% of indexable sample allows non-zero snippet AND standard image preview. |
How we test it
For each indexable page in our sample we parse the robots meta tag in the HTML and the X-Robots-Tag in the HTTP header. We look for three restrictive directives: nosnippet (no text preview at all), max-snippet:0 (zero characters allowed), and max-image-preview:none (no image preview). Any indexable page carrying one of these directives is flagged.
Show technical detection method
Parse robots meta and X-Robots-Tag; flag indexable pages with nosnippet/max-snippet:0/max-image-preview:none.
If your site fails: how to fix it
- Audit your site for the nosnippet directive in either the meta robots tag or the X-Robots-Tag header. If you find it, remove it on any page where you want the content to be quotable in AI answers.
- Check your SEO plugin settings. Many old configurations include max-snippet:0 or max-image-preview:none as defaults - change them to allow snippets and image previews on indexable pages.
- For pages where you actively want to encourage AI quoting (blog posts, FAQs, documentation), explicitly set max-snippet:-1 and max-image-preview:large. The -1 value means no length limit; large allows full-sized image previews.
- Leave snippet restrictions in place only on pages where they are deliberate - for example, paywalled or sensitive content where you do not want previews showing. Make sure those exceptions are documented so they do not get accidentally removed.
- Re-run the AI Ready Test and confirm at least 95% of indexable pages now allow standard snippets and image previews.
Quick facts
| Maturity | ESTABLISHED |
|---|---|
| Weight | medium |
| Category | Crawlability |
Primary sources
Related signals
Frequently asked questions
Why would I ever want nosnippet?
Two legitimate cases: paywalled content where you want the page indexed but do not want excerpts shown for free, and sensitive content where even a short preview could be misleading or harmful. For ordinary marketing pages, FAQs, and blog content, nosnippet is almost always counterproductive.
What is max-snippet:-1 for?
It removes any length limit on the text preview a search or AI assistant can show. The default cap is around 160 characters; -1 explicitly opts in to longer previews, which AI Overviews often show. For content-heavy pages this is the recommended setting because it gives AI more material to work with.
Do these directives affect Google AI Overviews specifically?
Yes - Google's AI Overviews honour the same snippet directives as classic search. A nosnippet on your page means Google AI Overviews cannot quote it. The same applies to Bing Copilot. Sites that opt into permissive snippets are quoted more frequently, which drives both citations and click-throughs.
What is max-image-preview:large for?
It signals that AI and search interfaces are allowed to show large image previews from your page - useful for visual content like products, recipes, or photography. Many AI assistants show image thumbnails alongside cited text, and large previews look more prominent in those answer interfaces.
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