noindex
noindex is a robots directive, in a meta tag or an HTTP header, telling a search engine not to include a page in its index.
Why it matters
It is the only reliable way to remove a URL from an index. A robots.txt disallow prevents crawling, not indexing.
How it is measured
Fetch the page and read the robots meta tag or the X-Robots-Tag header.
Checks that involve noindex
Related terms
Questions
What is noindex?
noindex is a robots directive, in a meta tag or an HTTP header, telling a search engine not to include a page in its index.
Why does noindex matter?
It is the only reliable way to remove a URL from an index. A robots.txt disallow prevents crawling, not indexing.
How is noindex measured?
Fetch the page and read the robots meta tag or the X-Robots-Tag header.