Noindex

Technical Definition

Noindex is a directive telling search engines not to include a page in their index. Implemented via meta robots tag () or X-Robots-Tag HTTP header. Use for pages you don't want in search results: thank you pages, internal search results, staging environments. Noindex requires crawling to be effective; don't block crawling AND use noindex.

Simple Explanation (ELI13)

Noindex is a way to tell Google 'please don't show this page in search results.' You might use it for pages that aren't useful to searchers, like thank you pages after someone fills out a form. The tricky part is that Google has to visit the page to see the noindex tag, so don't also block it with robots.txt.

Related Terms

Robots.txt, Meta Robots, Indexing, Crawling

Learn More

• SEO ProCheck Audit Guide
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