Page indexing report · Search Console
Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag
Google crawled the page, found a noindex rule, and left it out of the index. Google’s Help page calls this status “URL marked ‘noindex’”.1 If you meant it, there’s nothing to do. If you didn’t, here’s where the noindex can hide and how to get the page back.
Check the URL first
The checker looks for a noindex in the HTML and in the X-Robots-Tag header, and checks robots.txt. It sees the page as it is now, not as Google saw it, and can miss a noindex shown only to Googlebot.
In 30 seconds
- The noindex can be a meta tag or an HTTP header. Both work the same way.2
- If you don’t want the page indexed, Google says there’s nothing to fix.1
- Removing a noindex with JavaScript may not work. Remove it from the original HTML.4
- After you remove it, Google has to recrawl the page, which can take months for some pages.2
What the status means
In Google’s words, when it tried to index the page it encountered a noindex directive, and so didn’t index it.1 The directive is either a robots meta tag in the HTML or an X-Robots-Tag response header. When Googlebot finds either, Google drops the page from Search results.2
The status is set at indexing, after a successful crawl. That matters: Google can only obey a noindex it can read. If robots.txt blocks the URL, the noindex is never seen and the rule is ignored.3
Select a stage to see what happens there.
Discover
Google learns that a URL exists, mostly from links on pages it already knows and from XML sitemaps.
What goes wrong: Nothing links to the page and it isn’t in a sitemap, so Google never hears about it.
Report statuses at this stage
- URL is unknown to Google (shown in URL Inspection, not in the report)
Crawl
Googlebot checks robots.txt, then requests the URL. It spaces requests out so it doesn’t overload the server.
What goes wrong: The URL is blocked, returns an error, or the server is slow, so Google backs off and crawls less.
Report statuses at this stage
Render
Google runs the page’s JavaScript in a recent version of Chrome to see the finished page.
What goes wrong: Content only appears after a click or scroll, or the scripts fail, so the rendered page is nearly empty.
Report statuses at this stage
- No status of its own. Problems show up at the next stage as thin pages or soft 404s.
Index
Google decides which version of the page to keep and whether it is worth storing at all.
- Group duplicates. Pages with the same or very similar content go into one group.
- Pick a canonical. One URL represents each group. Canonical tags, redirects and sitemaps are hints, not commands.
- Select for the index. Google decides whether the canonical page is worth keeping. Google says this largely depends on quality.
What goes wrong: The page duplicates another, is marked noindex, or Google decides it adds too little to keep.
Report statuses at this stage
Serve
Indexed pages can appear in search results. Being indexed is not the same as ranking; an indexed page can still get no clicks.
What goes wrong: The page is indexed but doesn’t match what people search for, or other pages answer it better.
Report statuses at this stage
The name differs by place. Search Console’s report shows “Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag”; Google’s Help page lists it as “URL marked ‘noindex’”.1 Older articles call it “Submitted URL marked ‘noindex’”. They’re the same thing.
Is it a problem?
Usually fine
- Thank-you, confirmation and account pages
- Internal search results and filter URLs
- Login, cart and checkout pages
- Tag or paginated archives you chose to noindex
- Staging or test pages
Worth fixing
- Products, articles or landing pages you want in search
- A whole site or section after a launch or migration
- A count that jumps after a theme, plugin or deploy change
- Pages listed in your sitemap
Find the cause
The report tells you there’s a noindex, not where it came from. Run the URL through the checker above, then answer a few questions.
A site-wide setting left on
The most damaging case: a whole site launched with a development setting still on. In WordPress, “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” adds a noindex, nofollow tag to every page.8 Some projects switch noindex on outside production, so one wrong environment variable can carry it into production.
A template or plugin default
SEO plugins and CMSs let you noindex whole content types, archives or paginated pages.11 In Next.js, a robots setting in a layout’s metadata applies to every page under it.9 When many pages appear in the row at once, look for one setting, not many tags.
A header you can’t see in the source
X-Robots-Tag: noindex does the same job as the meta tag but lives in the HTTP response.2 Servers, CDNs, hosting platforms and middleware can all add it. If view-source is clean, check the headers.
A noindex that JavaScript was meant to remove
Google says that when it finds noindex it may skip rendering, so using JavaScript to change or remove the tag may not work as expected.4 Any page that starts as noindex and becomes indexable only in the browser is at risk.
A rule only Google sees
A googlebot meta tag applies only to Google, and conflicting rules resolve to the more restrictive one.3 So a page with robots: index and googlebot: noindex is noindexed in Google.
Where a noindex comes from
Pick a source to see what it looks like and how to find it.
Meta robots tag
The usual form, in the page’s <head>. It applies to all search engines that support it.2
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">Find it: view the page source and search for noindex. The value none means noindex, nofollow too.3
Meta googlebot tag
The same rule aimed only at Google. A site can look indexable to other tools and still be noindexed for Google. When rules conflict, Google applies the more restrictive one.3
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow">
<meta name="googlebot" content="noindex">Find it: search the source for googlebot as well as robots.
X-Robots-Tag header
A response header that works the same as the meta tag, and the only way to noindex PDFs, images and other non-HTML files.2 It never shows in the page source.
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
X-Robots-Tag: noindexFind it: curl -I https://example.com/page, or the Network tab in developer tools. Look in server, CDN and hosting config.
WordPress “Discourage search engines”
Since WordPress 5.3, this checkbox under Settings → Reading adds a noindex, nofollow tag to every page instead of blocking crawlers in robots.txt.8 It’s often ticked during development and forgotten at launch.
<meta name='robots' content='noindex,nofollow' />Find it: Settings → Reading, “Search engine visibility”.
SEO plugin defaults
SEO plugins can set noindex per content type (tags, categories, products), for paginated pages, or on a single post.11 A changed default can noindex hundreds of URLs at once.
Find it: check the plugin’s search appearance or content type settings, then the post’s own advanced settings. If the row grew suddenly, compare its start date with recent plugin updates or setting changes.
Next.js metadata
The robots field in a metadata export or generateMetadata renders the robots and googlebot meta tags.9 Set in a layout, it applies to every page below. A not-found page that streams also gets a noindex automatically.10
export const metadata = {
robots: { index: false }, // renders noindex
};Find it: search the project for robots: and index: false, including parent layouts.
Noindex in HTML, removed by JavaScript
If the original HTML says noindex, Google may skip rendering, so JavaScript that later removes or changes the tag may not work.4 Google’s advice: if you want the page indexed, don’t put noindex in the original page code.
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">
<script>
// too late: Google may never run this
document.querySelector('meta[name=robots]').remove();
</script>Find it: compare view-source with the rendered DOM.
Noindex in robots.txt
A Noindex: line in robots.txt does nothing in Google. Mueller called it an unsupported directive in 2024.7 It won’t cause this status, and it won’t keep a page out either.
User-agent: *
Noindex: /private/ # ignored by GoogleHow to fix it
- Decide whether the page should be indexed. If not, leave the noindex and remove the URL from your sitemap.
- Inspect the URL in Search Console and run a live test. It shows whether Google still sees a noindex and the HTML it received.2
- Find the source: meta tag, googlebot tag, header, CMS setting, plugin default or framework metadata.
- Remove it from the original HTML or response, not with JavaScript.4
- Make sure robots.txt doesn’t block the URL, or Google can’t see the change.3
- Request indexing once, and keep the page in your sitemap and internal links.
To hide a page quickly instead, the Removals tool blocks a URL from results for about six months while a noindex takes effect.5
How long it takes
- Can be monthsfor Google to recrawl a page after the noindex is removed. Google says less important pages can take months; requesting a recrawl can help.2
- Up to about 2 weeksfor Search Console to validate a fix, sometimes longer.1
- About 6 monthsfor a temporary removal in the Removals tool, if you need a page hidden while noindex takes effect.5
Long-term noindex has a side effect. Mueller has said that a page noindexed for a long time is eventually removed completely, and Google then stops following its links.6
Noindex vs Blocked by robots.txt
| Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag | Blocked by robots.txt | |
|---|---|---|
| Does Google crawl the page? | Yes | No |
| Keeps the URL out of results? | Yes2 | Not reliably; the URL can be indexed from links1 |
| Use it for | Pages that shouldn’t appear in search | Controlling what gets crawled |
| Combine them? | No. A robots.txt block stops Google from seeing the noindex.3 | |
Questions
What does “Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag” mean?
Google crawled the page, found a noindex rule in a robots meta tag or an X-Robots-Tag header, and left the page out of its index. Google’s Help page calls the same status “URL marked ‘noindex’”.
Is it bad to have pages excluded by noindex?
No, if you put the noindex there on purpose. Thank-you pages, account pages and internal search often should be noindexed. It’s only a problem when pages you want in search are in this row.
I removed the noindex. How long until the page is indexed?
Google has to recrawl the page first. Google says that can take months for less important pages. Request indexing in URL Inspection to ask for a recrawl, and validation in the report takes up to about two weeks.
Why does Search Console say noindex when I can’t find one?
It may be in an X-Robots-Tag header rather than the HTML, in a googlebot-only meta tag, in the original HTML before JavaScript changes it, or added by a CDN for some requests only. URL Inspection shows the HTML Google actually received.
Should I block noindexed pages in robots.txt as well?
No. If robots.txt blocks a page, Google can’t crawl it and never sees the noindex, so the URL can still be indexed from links. Use one or the other: noindex to keep a page out of results, robots.txt to stop crawling.
Does noindex, follow still pass links?
At first. Google’s John Mueller has said that a page noindexed for a long time is eventually dropped completely, and its links are then no longer followed, so long-term noindex, follow ends up like noindex, nofollow.
Sources
- Google, “Page indexing report”, Search Console Help
- Google, “Block Search indexing with noindex”, Search Central, updated December 2025
- Google, “Robots meta tag, data-nosnippet, and X-Robots-Tag specifications”, Search Central, updated March 2026
- Google, “Understand the JavaScript SEO basics”, Search Central, updated March 2026
- Google, “Removals and SafeSearch reports tool”, Search Console Help
- John Mueller (Google), Webmaster Central hangout, December 2017, reported by Search Engine Roundtable
- John Mueller (Google), LinkedIn, March 2024, reported by Search Engine Journal
- Peter Wilson, “Changes to prevent search engines indexing sites”, Make WordPress Core, September 2019
- Vercel, “generateMetadata”, Next.js documentation, updated August 2026
- Vercel, “loading.js”, Next.js documentation, updated September 2026
- All in One SEO, “Understanding and fixing the Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag status in Google Search Console”