Noindex
A directive telling search engines not to include a specific page in their search results.
Noindex is a meta tag or HTTP header that tells search engines not to include a page in their index. The page can still be crawled, but it won't appear in search results. The HTML version looks like: <meta name="robots" content="noindex">.
Use noindex for pages that shouldn't appear in search results: thank you pages, admin areas, internal search results pages, tag/archive pages with thin content, login pages, and staging environments.
Noindex is different from blocking via robots.txt. Robots.txt prevents crawling entirely — the bot never sees the page. Noindex allows crawling but prevents indexing. If you want a page removed from search results, use noindex. If you want to save crawl budget, use robots.txt.
Common mistake: using both robots.txt blocking AND noindex on the same page. If robots.txt blocks the page, the crawler can't see the noindex tag, so it might still get indexed (from external links). Pick one approach.
Why It Matters for SEO
Noindex prevents low-value pages from cluttering search results and diluting your site's quality signals. It gives you precise control over what appears in Google. Accidentally noindexing important pages is also a common SEO disaster — always double-check.
🔍 How to Check This
AuditMySite's SEO Scanner detects noindex tags and flags pages that might be accidentally blocked from indexing.
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