This translation has not been editorially reviewed yet. The German version is authoritative. Deutsche Fassung →
Checking noindex: the most common cause of invisible pages
A noindex directive removes the page from the search index — completely, and regardless of everything else. This is the check point with the greatest individual weight, because it makes every other one worthless: nobody finds a perfectly built page set to noindex.
- The classic case is the forgotten switch after a relaunch: during development, the page was deliberately set to noindex, and when it went live, the switch never got reset. Weeks later, somebody asks why the new website never shows up in any search.
- The directive can be in two places: as a meta tag in the page head, or as an HTTP header. The second is treacherous, because it's not visible in the source code — anyone who only looks at the HTML never finds it. The check sees both.
- noindex is a legitimate tool: thank-you pages, filter views, and internal search results don't belong in the index. The finding states that the directive is there — whether it belongs there is for the operator to decide.
