What is a noIndex Tag? – ASP Knowledge Base

A noIndex tag is an HTML meta tag that instructs search engines not to include a specific webpage in their search index.

It is used when you want a page to remain accessible on your website but prevent it from appearing in search engine results.

📝 Why Use a noIndex Tag?

Prevent Low-Value Pages from Being Indexed
Some pages, such as login pages, thank-you pages, or internal search results, don’t need to appear in search results. Using a noIndex tag keeps them out of search engines.
Avoid Duplicate Content Issues
If a page contains content similar to another page on your site, a noIndex tag helps consolidate SEO value.
Control Search Engine Visibility
Gives you control over which pages you want visible in search engines and which should remain hidden.

🔧 How It Works

A noIndex tag is placed in the <head> section of a webpage’s HTML:

This tells search engines not to index the page, but users can still access it directly.

⚠️ Note: This differs from a robots.txt file, which can block search engines from crawling a page entirely. A noIndex tag allows crawling but prevents listing in search results.

✅ Best Practices

Use noIndex for pages that are low-value for SEO or not intended for public search results.
Avoid using noIndex on pages you want to rank in search engines.
Combining noIndex with nofollow can prevent both indexing and passing link equity.
Ensure noIndex pages are not linked excessively from other pages.

⚙️ How to Change the Index/noIndex Meta Tag in Showoff

In Showoff, every page is indexed by default. You can override this globally for all pages or individually per page.

1. Set Site-Wide Indexing for All Pages

Login to the back office for your website.
Navigate to Settings > SEO Settings.
Under the Meta Tags section, set the option Site 'Index & Follow' meta tags to your desired setting.
Click Save.

⚠️ Warning: Changing this globally to noIndex will set all pages to noIndex and can severely harm your SEO. Only do this if absolutely necessary.

2. Override Indexing for an Individual Page

Navigate to the page, library, exhibitor, seminar, or speaker entry you wish to modify.
Click into the page or entry.
Click the Page / Entry Options button at the bottom of the page and go to the SEO tab.
Under Set up 'Index & Follow' meta tags, select noIndex, follow.
- Setting a page to noIndex also removes it from the XML sitemap.
Click Submit to close the popup, then click Save to apply changes.

⚠️ Note: Applying noIndex does not remove the page from search engines immediately. The page will remain in search results until the site is crawled again. Use Google Search Console to request a re-crawl for faster updates.

This guide ensures you can control which pages appear in search engines, protect duplicate content, and maintain SEO performance by focusing search engines on your most important pages.