noindex / nofollow
In one line
noindex tells search engines not to add a page to the index, while nofollow tells them not to follow a specific link — both are page-level robots directives.
Going deeper
noindex is set via <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> or an HTTP header. It is used for admin pages, internal search results, staging URLs — anything you do not want surfaced in search.
nofollow works at the link level. You attach it to ads, sponsored links or untrusted external links so that link equity does not flow out of your site. Since 2019 Google treats nofollow as a hint rather than a strict directive.
Classic mistake: leaving noindex on production pages after a relaunch. If organic traffic suddenly drops post-launch, check the robots meta tag in <head> first.
Related terms
Indexing
Indexing is the step where a search engine stores a crawled page in its database. If a page is not indexed, it cannot appear in search results at all.
SEOCrawlability
Crawlability is how easily a search engine bot can reach and follow your site's pages — the precondition for indexing.
SEONofollow
Nofollow is a rel attribute on a link telling search engines not to pass link equity along that link.
SEOGoogle Search Console
Google Search Console (GSC) is Google's free tool for monitoring how a site performs in Search — impressions, clicks, indexing status and technical issues.
SEOLink Equity
Link equity (often called 'link juice') is the authority and ranking signal a page passes to another page through a link.
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