What is the difference between noindex and nofollow?

Noindex tells a search engine not to include the page in its index, so it will not appear in results. Nofollow tells it not to pass ranking credit through the links on that page. A page can carry either directive alone, both together, or neither — the two are independent controls.

Can a noindex page still pass PageRank?

Not from the page itself once it is dropped from the index, but a noindex,follow page that remains crawlable still lets Google follow and evaluate its outbound links until the page is fully removed. Blocking the page in robots.txt instead would stop crawling and hide the noindex tag from ever being seen.

Why is my noindex page still showing in Google?

Noindex only takes effect once Google recrawls the page and reads the directive. If the page is blocked in robots.txt, Google can never fetch it to see the noindex tag, so it may stay indexed using signals like inbound links. Removing the robots.txt block resolves this.

Does noindex hurt my crawl budget?

Noindex pages are still crawled unless also blocked in robots.txt, so they continue consuming crawl budget indefinitely. For large sites with many low-value noindex pages, combining noindex with a robots.txt disallow — once the removal has been confirmed — reduces wasted crawling.

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Noindex Checker

Paste HTML, a meta robots tag or an X-Robots-Tag header to see exactly what it tells search engines to do.

Page HTML (head is enough)

X-Robots-Tag header (optional)

This is a paginated page

Indexable

Links on this page will also be followed.

In short

A noindex checker parses a page's meta robots tag, X-Robots-Tag HTTP header, or raw HTML to determine whether search engines are told to exclude it from results. It reads directives such as noindex, nofollow and none, reports which one applies, and flags conflicts — for example a page marked noindex that also carries a self-referencing canonical tag or appears in the XML sitemap, both of which waste crawl budget and confuse indexing signals.

Worked example

What the output looks like

Input: <meta name="robots" content="noindex, follow"> plus canonical href="https://example.com/page/"
Output: Indexable: No · Directive: noindex, follow · Conflict: self-referencing canonical present on a noindex page
How to read it: The page correctly tells Google not to index it while still passing link equity through its outbound links (follow). The flagged conflict is a minor one — a canonical tag has no effect once noindex is present — but removing it avoids confusing anyone auditing the page later.

How it works

Paste the page source or the directive string

Paste full HTML, just the <meta name="robots"> tag, or an X-Robots-Tag header value copied from your browser's network panel. The checker parses whichever format you give it.

Read the indexability verdict

The tool states plainly whether the page is indexable, and names the directive responsible if it is not — noindex, none (noindex plus nofollow), or a bot-specific rule like googlebot: noindex.

Fix flagged conflicts

If the page is noindex but still canonical to itself or listed in the sitemap, the checker calls this out, since both signals actively work against the noindex and can delay removal from the index.

What this tool does

Parses meta robots tags, X-Robots-Tag headers and raw HTML input
Identifies the exact directive blocking indexing: noindex, none or nofollow
Flags conflicts between noindex and canonical or sitemap inclusion
Runs entirely in your browser — no page is fetched or stored

Questions

Frequently asked

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