What is Noindex?
TL;DR
Noindex is a meta robots directive that tells search engines and AI crawlers not to include a specific page in their index, making it invisible in search and AI results.
Last updated: 2026-03-09
Definition#
Noindex is a directive you add to a page using a meta robots tag (
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">) or an HTTP response header (X-Robots-Tag: noindex). It tells crawlers to exclude the page from their index, which means the page will not appear in search results or AI-generated answers.
Noindex is useful for pages you do not want publicly discoverable: admin pages, thank-you pages, tag archives, thin content pages, staging environments, and internal tools. It is a stronger signal than just excluding the page from your sitemap.
Important: noindex prevents indexing but does not prevent crawling. The crawler still visits the page to read the tag. To prevent crawling entirely, use robots.txt.Why It Matters for AI Readiness#
Accidental noindex tags on important pages are a common problem. If your product pages, blog posts, or key landing pages have noindex tags, they are invisible to AI models and cannot be cited. The Bot Access factor checks for unexpected noindex tags.
Audit your site for noindex tags using Google Search Console or a crawling tool. Make sure only pages you intentionally want hidden are marked noindex.
Related Concepts#
Noindex is one value of the meta robots tag. It differs from robots.txt blocking (which prevents crawling entirely). It affects crawl budget because crawlers still visit noindexed pages.
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