Page with noindex

Why it matters

Noindex is right for a login page, a thank-you page or an internal search. On any other page it quietly removes the page from Google. Nofollow on an indexable page means its links pass on nothing, which weakens the pages it links to.

How Snaglist checks it

Snaglist reads the robots meta tag and the X-Robots-Tag header of every page. Every page with noindex (or none) is listed with the source and whether it is follow or nofollow. An indexable page with nofollow is listed as well. The homepage and pages from the main menu are reported separately as an error.

Snaglist reports this as a notice. It costs 5 percent of the page in the health score. Good to know, and sometimes a deliberate choice.

Common causes

• A login, account, cart or thank-you page, as intended
• A plugin or theme setting that sets noindex on tags, archives or attachments
• A page copied from a template that had noindex
• A developer who set noindex during the build and forgot to remove it

How to fix it

1. Go through the list and decide for each page whether it should be found in Google.
2. Remove noindex from pages that should be found, in the SEO settings of the page or the plugin.
3. Remove nofollow from indexable pages, unless you really want to withhold links.
4. Ask Google to inspect the page again in Search Console.

How it shows in the report

In the report for your client this appears under the heading "Pages you keep out of Google". When everything is in order, the report says: "No page excludes itself from Google".