If you want to control how your content appears in Google’s AI Overviews, you don’t need a new set of tools. You can use standard robots meta tags and HTML attributes.
You can use a tag to request the information on your page is not used in AI overviews, a tag to limit the AI overview snippet length, and a HTML attribute to request AI does not use specific content on your page – for example, an image.
| Control Method | Scope | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
nosnippet | Entire Page | Complete exclusion from AI overviews and standard snippets. |
max-snippet:[number] | Entire Page | Limiting the depth of the AI summary information to a set character limit. |
data-nosnippet | HTML Element | Hiding specific data, text, or other media from being used in AI overviews. |
nosnippet Tag
This is the most restrictive option. It tells Google you do not want any text snippet or video/image preview to appear for this page. This effectively prevents the page from being used as a source for an AI Overview summary.
When to use it: For sensitive content or pages where you only want users to see the information if they click through to your site.
How to apply: Add this line to the section of your HTML:
<-meta name="robots" content="nosnippet"->Click here for HTML code.
max-snippet Tag
This tag allows you to specify exactly how many characters Google is allowed to extract from your page for a snippet or AI summary.
When to use it: If you want to remain visible in search but prevent the AI from giving away “too much” of your content for free. Setting a low character count (e.g., 200) often prevents a full AI summary from being generated.
How to apply: Add this to your (change ‘200’ to your preferred character limit):
<-meta name="robots" content="max-snippet:200"->Click here for HTML code.
Note: Setting max-snippet:0 is the same as nosnippet.
data-nosnippet Attribute
This is arguably the most useful tool for marketers. Unlike the tags above (which affect the whole page), this is an HTML attribute you can add to specific sections (like a div, span, or section).
When to use it: To protect proprietary data, specific expert tips, or “spoiler” content while still allowing the rest of the page to be indexed and summarized.
How to apply: Add the attribute to the HTML tag of the section you want to hide:
<-p->This part of the article can be used in an AI summary.<-/p-><-div data-nosnippet->
<-p->This specific paragraph will NEVER appear in a Google AI Overview or search snippet.<-/p->
<-/div->
Click here for HTML code.
Notes
No-Index: If you don’t want a page to appear in search at all (including AI Overviews), use ‘’.
Google-Specific: If you only want these rules to apply to Google (and not Bing or other engines), change: ‘name=”robots”‘ to: ‘name=”googlebot”‘.
Verification: After applying changes to your site, use the URL Inspection Tool in Google Search Console to ‘Request Indexing’. This forces Google to re-crawl the page and recognize your new snippet rules.
If you want to safeguard the information on your website, using robots meta tags and HTML attributes can be the best method to limit AI scraping, and presenting your content in AI overviews and other AI search features.
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