Noindex vs. Nofollow: Understanding Meta Robots Tags for SEO

The noindex and nofollow tags help control how search engines interact with your website.

Although they are often mentioned together, they serve different purposes.

The noindex tag controls whether a page can appear in search results. The nofollow attribute controls whether search engines should follow links on a page or transfer ranking signals through them.

Understanding the difference helps prevent indexing issues and ensures that search engines focus on your most important content.

What the noindex tag does

The noindex tag tells search engines not to include a page in their search results.

When search engines process a page containing this directive, the page can still be crawled, but it should not appear in search listings.

The tag is typically added in the page’s <head> section:

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

Common use cases include:

• order confirmation pages
• shopping cart and checkout pages
• internal search result pages
• staging environments
• duplicate content pages
• thank-you pages after form submissions

Using noindex helps keep low-value or private content out of search results.

What the nofollow attribute does

The nofollow attribute tells search engines not to follow a specific link or pass ranking signals through it.

It is added directly to a link:

<a href="https://example.com" rel="nofollow">Example link</a>

Unlike noindex, nofollow does not prevent the current page from appearing in search results.

Instead, it affects how search engines interpret links.

Common use cases include:

• sponsored links
• affiliate links
• user-generated content
• untrusted external websites
• links placed in comments or forums

Search engines may treat nofollow as a hint rather than a strict directive.

Noindex and nofollow: key differences

Feature	noindex	nofollow
Affects page visibility in search results	Yes	No
Affects how links are processed	No	Yes
Applied to pages	Yes	No
Applied to links	No	Yes
Prevents indexing	Yes	No
Prevents link authority transfer	No	Yes

The practical difference is simple:

• Use noindex when you do not want a page to appear in search results.
• Use nofollow when you do not want search engines to follow or evaluate specific links.

Can you use both together?

Yes.

You can combine both directives when needed.

For example:

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

This tells search engines:

• do not include the page in search results
• do not follow links found on the page

This approach is often used for temporary pages, private content, or internal resources.

However, using noindex and nofollow together is not always necessary.

Choose directives based on the purpose of the page.

Common implementation mistakes

Incorrect use of these directives can affect search visibility.

Common mistakes include:

• applying noindex to important product or category pages
• using nofollow on internal navigation links
• blocking pages in robots.txt while also expecting search engines to process noindex
• forgetting to remove noindex after launching a new website
• applying directives site-wide by mistake

Regular SEO audits can help identify these issues before they affect traffic.

The article What impact do tags, meta descriptions, and image alt text have on SEO? explains how search engines use metadata to understand your content.

How to decide which directive to use

Ask yourself two questions:

1. Should this page appear in search results?
2. Should search engines follow the links on this page?

Your answers determine the appropriate directive.

Situation	Recommended action
Thank-you page after a form submission	noindex
Sponsored external link	nofollow
Internal search results page	noindex
Affiliate link	nofollow
Checkout page	noindex
User-generated links	nofollow

Remember that search engines prioritize valuable, unique content.

Controlling indexing helps focus search visibility on the pages that matter most.

For guidance on building pages that attract and convert visitors, see How to turn your company website into a lead-generating machine.

If you are optimizing an online store, the article PrestaShop SEO: how to improve your store’s visibility in search results covers additional technical SEO considerations.

Understanding how search engines evaluate metadata, links, and content structure can also help improve your results. See Rank Math for WordPress: an overview of its SEO features for practical examples.

Summary

The noindex tag controls whether a page can appear in search results.

The nofollow attribute controls whether search engines should follow specific links.

Although they are related, they solve different problems.

Using them correctly helps search engines understand your website structure and focus on the content you want users to find.