Noindex and nofollow: differences and ways of SEO use
A red light and a signal to “give way” – this is what noindex and nofollow represent to search engine crawlers. More precisely, the former directive blocks indexing and prevents search engines from proceeding, while the nofollow attribute invites them to “give way,” continuing without giving value to the links encountered. All clear? It’s not always, actually, because webmasters often don’t quite know how to handle noindex and nofollow, confusing ways and use cases to the point of causing real SEO mistakes. So it’s time to delve into what exactly these commands are, when and how we should use them, and how we can distinguish between the two.
What noindex and nofollow are
Noindex and nofollow are two of the most influential directives in SEO, commands that have the power to guide search engines in how they interact with a site’s content.
To be precise, noindex is a meta tag that you insert in the HTML header of a page to tell search engines not to include that specific page in the search results index. This command is crucial when you have pages that you do not want to be found via search, such as pages under development, duplicate content, or confidential information.
The term nofollow actually has two meanings and applications: it is both a robots meta tag value and a relational attribute applied to individual links (anchor tags). In both cases, however, it serves to tell search engines not to follow (in English “no follow” literally means not to follow) that particular link or not to pass PageRank. Classically, nofollow has been used to tag links to content whose quality is not guaranteed or for advertising links, where passing PageRank could be interpreted as an attempt to manipulate search results (although now it is more appropriate to use the sponsored attribute).
When we talk about nofollow as a robots meta tag, we are referring to a directive that is placed in the header of a web page: this tag impacts all links on the page, telling search engines not to follow any of the outbound links. This approach is useful when you want to apply a uniform policy to all links on the page, as might be the case with a page that contains many advertising or affiliate links.
On the other hand, nofollow as a link attribute is more selective because it applies directly to the anchor element (the <a> tag) of a specific link and tells search engines not to follow that single link. It is a valuable tool when we want to prevent PageRank or authority transfer to a specific site, or when we want to place a link but do not want it to affect the ranking of the target site.
What are the differences between noindex and nofollow
NoIndex and NoFollow have different kinds of usefulness.
Noindex is used to indicate to a search engine not to store the web page for display in search results, and thus prevents indexing (even of resources previously “known” to Google).
Nofollow is used to indicate to search engine crawlers not to follow links on the page. When nofollow is used as a robots meta tag within the header of a web page, it applies to all outbound links on the page, whether they are external links (pointing to another domain) or internal links (pointing to the same web property).
When to use directives
Noindex is the right choice when you have a page that we do not want to appear in search results. This can include post-conversion thank you pages, privacy policy pages, or specialized pages that do not add value in terms of search. Using noindex strategically helps keep the search engine index clean and focused on the content you want to promote.
Nofollow should be used when we do not want to associate our site with the linked site or when we do not want to influence search rankings with external links. For example, user comments on a blog may include links that the site owner cannot verify, so the use of nofollow helps prevent possible quality or spam problems-although in this case we could use the more specific UGC attribute, which was introduced precisely to label links found in sections of the site that host User Generated Content.
In particular, then, the simultaneous use of nofollow noindex on a page has a significant impact on both indexing and PageRank passing, because it tells search engines not to index the content or follow the link. This choice should be the exception rather than the rule, employed only when both actions (not indexing and not following) are clearly justified by the SEO strategy.
How to use combinations of nofollow and noindex
The use of the robots noindex and nofollow meta tags can be combined in several ways to tell search engines how to treat pages and the links in them.
More accurately, we can use noindex and nofollow together or separately-the choice to use these combinations will depend on the specific goals and SEO strategy of the site. It is important to carefully consider the effect each combination will have on page visibility and authority distribution within and outside the site.
Thus, here are the possible combinations and their implications:
- Noindex, Nofollow
<meta name=“robots” content=“noindex, nofollow”>
The noindex nofollow combination together is the most restrictive choice: it tells search engines not to index the page (noindex) and not to follow the links it contains (nofollow). Using both directives means that the page will not appear in search results and the links on the page will not contribute to the ranking of other pages, either internal or external. This can be useful for test pages or content that you do not want discovered or associated with your site: for example, it could be applied to login pages, internal management pages, or temporary pages such as those of expired promotions. It is also useful when developing new sections of the site that are not yet ready to be public or for pages that contain sensitive information that you do not want to be easily accessible.
- Noindex, Follow
<meta name=“robots” content=“noindex, follow”> (or also, more simply, <meta name=“robots” content=“noindex”>)
With this combination, we tell search engines not to include the page in their indexes (noindex), but to still follow the links it contains (follow, which may also not be explicit). This setting is useful when we want search engines not to show the page in search results, but we still want outbound links from the page to be explored and can pass authority to linked sites. This can help maintain a strong internal link structure or pass value to external pages deemed important.
Specifically, this combination is ideal for pages that contain useful or quality links that you want to be explored by search engines, but whose page content itself does not need to be indexed. For example, it may be suitable for post-conversion thank-you pages, which often contain links to related products or services, or for pages that we want to remove from search results without compromising the site’s internal link structure. Another example might be a page with seasonal or archived content that is no longer relevant for direct search but still contains important links. Another frequent case is paginated directory pages: for example, “noindex,follow” can be applied to a blog’s archive listings to prevent the archive pages themselves from showing up in search results, but allow search engines to crawl, index, and rank the blog posts themselves.
- (Index), Nofollow
<meta name=“robots” content=“nofollow”>
Adding only the nofollow meta tag (indexing is the default behavior of search engines) implies that the page will be indexed and may appear in search results, but outbound links will not convey PageRank or authority. This can be useful for pages that contain many external links for which the webmaster does not want to pass authority, such as blog articles that cite external sources, review pages with links to third-party products, or content aggregation pages. In addition, it can be employed to prevent PageRank passing to partner sites in sponsored or advertising links, in accordance with search engine guidelines for links.
Noindex and Nofollow: best practices and common mistakes
To get the most out of these guidelines, it is important to follow some simple best practices.
First, you need to understand how they work and what they mean specifically: noindex should be used for pages we don’t want to be found, while nofollow should be used for links whose authority you don’t want to pass on. So, in summary, one command prevents indexing, the other limits PageRank passing.
Equally important is to be aware of how (and how much) the use of noindex and nofollow affects site visibility and PageRank passing, before applying these directives.
Therefore, the “rules” are:
- Use noindex for non-essential content. Apply noindex to pages that do not add value to search results or that might dilute the relevance of your site, such as under construction pages, privacy policy pages, or thank you pages.
- Do not use noindex on important pages. Do not use noindex on pages that are crucial to your site and that you want to be found by search engines, such as product pages, main articles, or home pages.
- Use nofollow on untrusted external links. Set nofollow on links pointing to sites whose trustworthiness you cannot attest to or do not want to support, such as blog comments or forums.
- Do not abuse internal nofollow. Avoid using nofollow on internal links as it may hinder the ability of search engines to navigate your site and understand its structure.
- Use noindex nofollow only on truly “useless” pages. Limit setting both directives only to pages with highly sensitive or confidential content, test or development pages that are not intended for public viewing, temporary pages that do not provide long-term value, such as pages of expired promotions or past events.
Also, it is important to periodically check the noindex and nofollow directives to make sure they are still relevant and up-to-date with the SEO strategy we are following.
To check whether a page has noindex or nofollow, you can view the page’s source code or use SEO tools. For example, Google Search Console provides information about page indexing and whether there are any noindex issues, while Screaming Frog or SEOZoom’s SEO Spider can scan the site and detect noindex and nofollow directives on a large scale.
This way we can also avoid common errors with these directives. Clearly, the most serious problems arise when we overuse or misuse noindex, which can hide important content, while the wrong use of nofollow can prevent PageRank passing to deserving internal pages.
For Google, “noindex” in the long run leads to “nofollow”
Speaking of errors, or at any rate situations that evolve and need to be properly considered, we should mention two relevant technical aspects about noindex nofollow.
First, adding a nofollow tag to a page does not prevent it from being crawled because a noindex tag is needed to block the indexing of a URL. This will allow Google to crawl the page, but it will not appear in the index. To prevent Google from fully crawling the page, we can block it via the robots.txt file.
Even more technical is the second situation, which occurs when we set a directive of the type noindex, follow. In fact, as explained by John Mueller, if Googlebot sees “noindex” for a long time , the pages are completely removed from the index and the links in them will no longer be crawled, and thus will not transfer any link equity to other pages.
This implies that even if the page is “noindex, follow,” in the long run it would be no different from “noindex, nofollow” for Google: the reasoning is that if pages that are not important enough to be indexed, eventually they may also not be important enough to influence the ranking of other pages through their links.
This transformation is not immediate, there is no certainty about how long it is “long term,” it is not guaranteed to happen in all cases, and it depends on multiple factors: however, it is something that Google has mentioned and that we need to remember in order to really keep our site in check.
