How noindex works
Google describes noindex as a rule in a robots meta tag or an HTTP header. When Googlebot can crawl the page and finds the rule, Google will drop that page from Search results, even if other sites link to it.
The usual HTML form is:
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">
To address only Google's main web crawler, Google also documents <meta name="googlebot" content="noindex">. The same instructions can be sent as an X-Robots-Tag HTTP header, which Google recommends for non-HTML files such as PDFs or images. Names and values are case-insensitive. A page can also combine rules, for example noindex, follow.
The important limit, in Google's own words: the page must not be blocked by robots.txt, and it has to be otherwise accessible. If the crawler cannot fetch the page, it will never see the noindex rule.
How to check a URL
- Open the page and view the HTML head for a robots or googlebot meta tag that includes
noindexornone. - Check the HTTP response for an
X-Robots-Tagheader with the same rule. A header can noindex a file that has no HTML head. - Confirm robots.txt does not disallow the URL if you actually want the noindex rule to be seen, or if you want the page indexed.
- For official Google status, use URL Inspection in Search Console. Google can report indexing blocked by a meta tag or by an HTTP header.
The meta tag checker reads public HTML and will flag a noindex directive. It does not prove index status in Google or Bing. If a Traffivio audit reports a noindex finding, start here and decide whether the directive is intentional.
Official sources
Checked on 10 November 2026:
- Block Search indexing with noindex — meta tag and header, and why the page must remain crawlable.
- Robots meta tags specifications — valid rules, googlebot tokens, and the X-Robots-Tag header.
Check a public page
Run the free meta tag checker, or save the site in a Traffivio workspace for a read-only HTML audit. Nothing is changed on the site.
Check a page ↗Questions
Where can a noindex rule appear?
Google supports a robots meta tag in the HTML head, for example <meta name="robots" content="noindex">, and the equivalent X-Robots-Tag HTTP header, which is useful for non-HTML files. A googlebot-specific meta tag can apply the rule only to Google's crawlers.
Why might noindex fail?
If robots.txt or another block stops the crawler from fetching the page, the crawler never sees the noindex rule, and the URL can still appear in search results when other pages link to it. Google states this clearly in its noindex documentation.
Is noindex the same as a Traffivio noindex finding?
A Traffivio audit finding means a noindex directive was present in the fetched public response. It does not confirm whether Google or Bing has dropped the URL, or whether the directive was intentional.