What Is a Noindex Tag?
Noindex Tag is a directive that tells search engines not to include a webpage in their search results. Website owners place the directive in a page’s robots meta tag or HTTP response header. Search engines may still crawl the page, and the directive does not stop other pages from linking to it.
Quick Facts About Noindex Tag
Category
Technical SEO directive
Used for
Keeping selected pages out of search results
Common confusion
Noindex is not a crawl block
Also called
Meta Robots Noindex, Noindex Directive
Often discussed with
Technical SEO
Key Takeaways About Noindex Tag
- A Noindex Tag controls search result inclusion, not necessarily crawling.
- The directive can appear in page HTML or an HTTP response header.
- Noindex does not mean the same thing as blocking a page in robots.txt.
How Noindex Tag Works
A Noindex Tag gives a search engine an instruction about search result inclusion. On an HTML page, the instruction commonly appears in a robots meta tag. A website can also send the same instruction through the X-Robots-Tag HTTP response header, which can apply to files that do not contain HTML.
Related glossary terms: Robots.txt, Index Coverage, Crawl Error.
Search engines need access to the instruction before they can process it. A robots.txt rule can prevent crawling, so a crawler may not see a noindex directive on the blocked page. Robots.txt controls crawler access, while a noindex directive controls whether an accessible page belongs in search results. Search Console can help confirm how a search engine interprets the page.
Expert Note
When we review a website, we check the page source and response headers for noindex directives. We compare those instructions with the page’s purpose, internal links and indexing status in search tools. We also check that important service pages have not received the directive through a template or staging-site setting.
Noindex Tag in Practice: A Real-World Example
A Ballarat trades business may keep a temporary quote confirmation page out of search results with a Noindex Tag. The page can remain available to people who complete the form, while the public service pages stay eligible for organic search.
Related Services
Related Terms
Robots.txt
Robots.txt is a plain-text file that gives search engine crawlers instructions about which website paths they…
Index Coverage
Index Coverage is a report that shows which website URLs Google has discovered, crawled and stored…
Crawl Error
Crawl Error is a problem that prevents a search engine crawler from accessing or processing a…
Canonical URL
A Canonical URL is the preferred web address for a page when similar or duplicate versions…
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