What is noindex and how to use it correctly?
Noindex is a meta tag <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> in page code telling search engines: 'don't add this page to the index'. Unlike robots.txt (blocks crawling), noindex allows crawling but blocks indexing. Used for thank-you pages, cart, account, filter duplicates, thin tag pages. Often combined with follow/nofollow for link equity control.
Noindex is a meta tag telling search engines not to add the page to the index. Unlike robots.txt (blocks crawling), noindex allows crawling but blocks indexing.
How it looks
<meta name="robots" content="noindex" />
Variants
| Tag | Effect |
|---|---|
| noindex | Don't index, follow links. |
| noindex, nofollow | Don't index, don't pass link equity. |
| nosnippet | Don't show snippet in SERP. |
When to use
- Thank-you page.
- Cart, checkout.
- User account pages.
- Thin content (tag pages with 1–2 posts).
- Faceted filter duplicates.
- Test pages before launch.
This question is also asked as:
- •what is noindex meta tag
- •noindex vs nofollow
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