Noindex tag is an HTML directive that tells search engines not to index a specific webpage in their search results.
What Is a Noindex Tag?
A noindex tag is a meta tag or HTTP header used to prevent a webpage from being listed in search engine results. When search engines detect the tag, they crawl the page but exclude it from their index, meaning it won’t appear in Google or Bing search listings.
It’s often used to control what content should remain private, temporary, or non-searchable.
How to Implement the Noindex Tag:
You can apply the noindex directive using HTML:
htmlCopyEdit<meta name="robots" content="noindex" />
Or through the HTTP header for non-HTML files like PDFs:
makefileCopyEditX-Robots-Tag: noindex
When to Use the Noindex Tag:
- Thank-you or confirmation pages
- Login or admin pages
- Duplicate or thin content
- Staging/test environments
- Internal search results pages
- Archive, tag, or category pages (in some CMS setups)
Important Notes:
- The page must be crawlable for the noindex tag to be seen and followed.
- Use noindex with nofollow to prevent crawling of links on the page.
- Avoid blocking pages with
robots.txtif you’re using noindex — that would prevent search engines from seeing the tag at all.
Best Practices:
- Regularly audit indexed pages to identify content that should be noindexed
- Use Google Search Console to verify indexing status
- Combine with canonical tags or redirects when needed to consolidate SEO signals
