LinkWhat the checker reads
| Where | Example | Counts as noindex? |
|---|---|---|
| Meta robots tag | <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> | Yes. |
| Meta tag for Google only | <meta name="googlebot" content="noindex"> | Yes. |
| The value "none" | <meta name="robots" content="none"> | Yes, it means noindex and nofollow. |
| HTTP header | X-Robots-Tag: noindex | Yes. |
| Header for another crawler | X-Robots-Tag: bingbot: noindex | No, it is not addressed to Google. |
| HTTP status | 404 or 410 | Reported as a page that is gone. A redirect is followed and shown. |
A canonical tag that names another address is shown next to the result. It is not a noindex, but it tells search engines to prefer that other address, so it is worth a look.
What it does not read
- robots.txt. A Disallow rule blocks crawling. It does not remove a page from search results, and it hides the page's own noindex from search engines.
- Tags added by JavaScript. The checker reads the HTML the server sends and does not run scripts.
- Google itself. The result is what the page asks for, not what Google has done with it.
How to remove a noindex
- Find where it is set. The result names the place: a meta tag in the HTML or a header from the server.
- On WordPress, look at Settings, Reading ("Discourage search engines from indexing this site") and at the page's own setting in your SEO plugin.
- For a header, look at the server or CDN configuration, and at plugins that set headers for whole folders or file types.
- Check again. Run the page through the checker after the change, then ask Google to recrawl it in Search Console.
When the page is not yours, as with an article you paid to be in, you cannot fix it: you can only notice it and ask. LinkRot checks every page you bought a link on each day and tells you the day a noindex appears. To see whether the link itself is followed, use the dofollow checker. Noindex is one of eight things to verify on a bought link: see how to check a paid backlink.
Questions about noindex
What is a noindex tag?
An instruction to search engines not to show a page in their results. It can sit in the HTML as <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> or travel with the page as an X-Robots-Tag: noindex HTTP header. Both do the same thing.
How do I check if a page is noindex?
Paste the address above. The checker downloads the page and reads the robots meta tags and the X-Robots-Tag header. By hand: open the page source and search for "noindex", then look at the response headers in the Network tab of your browser's developer tools.
Is a robots.txt Disallow the same as noindex?
No. robots.txt stops crawling, not listing: a blocked page can still appear in search results if other pages link to it. And when a page is blocked in robots.txt, search engines cannot read its noindex at all. This checker reads the page, not robots.txt.
Does this tell me whether Google has the page?
No. It tells you what the page asks for today. A page with no noindex can still be missing from Google, and a page that got its noindex yesterday can still be listed for a while.
What does content="none" mean?
It is shorthand for noindex, nofollow. The checker reports it as a noindex.
Why does a noindex matter for a link I paid for?
A page that is kept out of the index is a page search engines stop relying on, and the links on it stop helping the pages they point to. A link on a noindexed page is, for practical purposes, a link you no longer have.
How many pages can I check?
5 pages per check and 25 per hour, without an account. The addresses you enter are not stored.