What Is "Noindex" in SEO — and When Should You Use It?

In SEO, not all pages are meant to rank.

The noindex directive tells search engines like Google:

❌ “Do NOT include this page in search results.”

It’s a powerful tool — but if used wrong, it can kill your SEO.

When to Use noindex:
Thank you pages or confirmation screens

Login or admin pages

Duplicate content pages

Internal search result pages

Low-value or thin content pages

⚠️ Common Mistakes:
🔸 Accidentally adding noindex to key pages like blog posts
🔸 Using it on your homepage or main services
🔸 Forgetting to remove it after staging/testing

🔧 How to Add noindex (HTML):
 

<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">

Or via HTTP headers or CMS plugins (like Yoast for WordPress or robots middleware in Next.js).