"Noindex" is a meta tag used in HTML coding to tell search engines that a specific page should not be indexed. This means the page does not appear in the search results. This can be useful for several reasons, including preventing duplicate content, protecting private content, or controlling which pages appear in the search results.
How does noindex work?
The noindex meta tag is placed in the HTML code for the specific page you want to exclude from the search engine's index. Here is an example of how to add the noindex tag to a page:
<head>
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">
</head>When a search engine like Google crawls this page and sees the noindex tag, it will omit the page from the search results.
Why use noindex?
There are several situations where it can be useful to use the noindex tag:
- Prevent duplicate content: If you have multiple pages with very similar or identical content, noindex can help avoid issues with duplicate content, which can hurt your SEO.
- Protect private content: If you have pages that are only intended for certain users, such as member pages or internal pages, noindex can prevent them from being shown to the public via search engines.
- Improve search results: By noindexing irrelevant or low-quality pages you can ensure that only the most valuable pages from your site appear in the search results, which can improve the user experience and your overall SEO.
Implementing noindex
To implement noindex on your pages, you can add the meta tag in the HTML code as shown above. Many Content Management Systems (CMS) like WordPress also have plugins and settings that make it easy to add noindex to specific pages without editing HTML directly.
Using noindex with other meta tags
Noindex is often used together with other meta tags to give additional instructions to search engines. For example, you can use "noindex, nofollow" to prevent search engines from both indexing the page and following links on the page:
<head>
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">
</head>