URL marked 'noindex'

Google’s help page says that when Google tried to index the page it found a noindex directive, and so did not index it. If you do not want the page indexed, its word is “congratulations”. If you do, remove the directive. You may know it as “Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag” or “Submitted URL marked ‘noindex’”: the same directive, and the same fix.

Google’s noindex guide names the two places the directive can be: a robots <meta> tag in the page’s <head>, or an X-Robots-Tag HTTP header, which nothing in the page’s source shows.

• In the page: view the source and search for noindex in a <meta name="robots"> or <meta name="googlebot"> tag.
• In the headers: curl -sI and the address, and look for X-Robots-Tag. A rule meant for PDFs, written for a folder, catches the HTML pages in it too.
• As Google got it: URL Inspection shows the HTML Googlebot received. The help page asks you to confirm the noindex is still in the live version before acting on the report.

• Remove the tag or the header, at its source: the template, the plugin setting, the server or CDN rule.
• Do not block the page in robots.txt meanwhile. Google’s guide says a page blocked by robots.txt is never read, so its noindex, or the lack of one, is never seen.
• Ask for a recrawl in URL Inspection. Google says recrawling can take months for less important pages; the request speeds up the ones that matter.

The other way round, to take a page out: a noindex works only if Google can crawl the page and read it. robots.txt is not the tool, and Google does not support noindex inside robots.txt.

• Pages with a noindex robots tag, and whether the rest of their template has it too, a sign it is meant (INDEX-001).
• Pages with a noindex in the HTTP header, the one the source does not show (INDEX-002).
• A sitemap that lists noindexed pages, the contradiction above (CRAWL-010).
• A page that brings clicks from search and carries noindex, with your Search Console connected: the costly mistake, found before the clicks are gone (GSC-003).

How the tag works, and when it is the right tool: the noindex tag, in depth.

I removed the noindex. Why is the page still listed? Google has not crawled it since. Ask for a recrawl of the pages that matter, and give the rest time.

Is a long list a problem? Not if it is the pages you meant to keep out. Sort it by folder: a list of search results is fine, a list of products is not.

Should I use robots.txt instead? No. robots.txt stops Google reading a page; it does not take an address out of the index, and it hides the noindex.

The Trakis audit reads the robots tag and the headers of every page, and sorts what looks deliberate from what looks like a template gone wrong, each problem once with the pages it covers. Create a free account and add your site, or see every Search Console status, explained.