Using noindex nofollow. Noindex and closing external links

First of all, let's start with the fact that there are several fundamental different concepts: tag, rel=”nofollow” attribute and meta tag. In this article we will take a closer look at their definitions and purposes.

What is a tag

... is a tag that was proposed to be used by search engines to prohibit indexing of the content contained in it. This tag not included in the official specification hypertext markup html web pages.

Important: it is recognized only by the search engines Yandex and Rambler. Google is not one of the search engines that understands given html tag.

What is the rel=”nofollow” attribute?

rel=”nofollow” – a value that prohibits search engines from following a link that uses this attribute.

All examples of using the tag and the rel=”nofollow” attribute will be discussed below.

The noindex tag and the rel=“nofollow” attribute

Tag for links

This tag can be used to block links from indexing. This is what it will look like in the page code:

for links

link text

Tag for content

This tag can also be used to block content from indexing. There are two ways. In the page code it will look like this:

for content - option 1

< noindex >< / noindex >

for content - option 2

Text prohibited from indexing

< ! -- noindex -- >Text prohibited from indexing< ! -- / noindex -- >

But it is worth remembering that this tag is understood only by the search engines Yandex and Rambler. Its properties do not apply to Google. Therefore, if your site has low-quality content, you can close it in this way only from Yandex and Rambler robots.

rel=”nofollow” for links

This attribute is most often used by optimizers if they want search engines to not take into account the presence of an outgoing link as a weight transfer factor, but the link will still be studied by the robot. Here's what it looks like in code:

rel=”nofollow”

link text

Typically, this is appropriate when links are added automatically, for example, in comments. If you cannot or do not want to vouch for the content of pages linked to from your site, you should insert . This attribute is understood by both Google bots and Yandex bots, and in their help search engines write the following:

If you have carefully read the information on the links above, you now know that no-follow link weight is not transferred. But from practice, we can safely say that the presence of such links in the link profile is very useful and quite natural factor in the eyes of search engines. But having a lot of outgoing links on your site can be a negative factor, even if they are closed through this attribute.

Should I use rel=”nofollow” for internal links?

How to use tag and rel=”nofollow” together

Here's a code example where SEOs use the tag and the rel=”nofollow” attribute at the same time:

"together

link text

But this method fully works only for Yandex robots. Google only understands >.

Meta tag

This meta tag is installed in a section on the page that should not be indexed and it looks like this:

Meta tag

… ...

< head > < meta name = "robots" content = "noindex, nofollow" / > . . . < / head >

The essence of the noindex and nofollow values ​​in the meta tag remains the same:

Noindex – prohibits indexing at the page level (all content that is on it), but does not prohibit search robots visit it and follow the links used in the content.

– prohibits search robots from following links at the page level (both external and internal).

Combinations

There are several cases when this meta tag is used in practice. There are different solutions for these cases:

should be used if you do not want the page to be indexed by search engines, but robots could follow links from this page to others. For example, this could be the second pagination page on a site like site.com/category/?page=2, which has links to the following products and you do not want this page to be indexed by a search engine.

does the same thing. IN in this case you will prohibit search engine index the page, but robots will be able to view it and follow the links.

– prohibits indexing the content on the corresponding page, and also prohibits robots from following links.

– allows robots to index the page and follow links. It makes no sense to use such a meta tag, since by default, even without it, search engines are allowed to perform the same actions. But if it is installed on your site and you are not going to limit the work of the robot, there is no point in deliberately removing it.

- allows the page to be indexed, but the robot will not follow the links it contains.

- does the same thing - allows the page to be indexed, but the robot will not follow the links it contains.

This meta tag can be used for both Google and Yandex separately

If you need to block pages from indexing only for Google, you can use . Google help says so.

If you block indexing only for Yandex - . This is also written in great detail in the Yandex help.

How to combine meta name="robots" with robots.txt and what is the fundamental difference

Some SEOs don't understand the difference between a meta tag and closing the corresponding page in the robots.txt file. Both methods prevent search robots from indexing a site page, but there is still a difference:

The first one allows robots to go to this page, see the meta tag and exclude it from the index or not index it.

The second one prohibits you from visiting the page, and if suddenly it has already been indexed before, it can remain in the search engine index for a long time, even if you close it in the robots.txt file, without the right to re-index, later you can see it in searches like this:

Therefore, for non-indexed pages, you can use any of the options.

If the page has already been indexed, it is recommended to install a meta tag in the section. This will remove it from the index and prevent it from being added to it again.

If your site is built on WordPress, the free Yoast SEO plugin will help you set up these meta tags correctly. This is roughly what it looks like:

The RDS bar browser extension can help analyze the presence of all these elements (both meta tags and tags and attributes) in the code of the site pages:

Having configured it correctly, you will be able to see the content wrapped in the tag (will be highlighted):

And using the meta tag:

Now you know how to use these methods to set up proper site indexing, which can have a positive impact on its overall promotion.

Hello everyone! Today I want to talk about the noindex tags and the nofollow attribute.

noindex tag – what is it?

In short, No index prevents search robots from indexing any element on the site. This tag is not valid, so many html editors do not accept it. For example, to wordpress editor took into account the tag, then you need to write:

If you write it in this format, the tag will not disappear. You also need to understand that noindex tag relevant only for the Yandex search engine. Google doesn't take it into account.

Do not confuse the noindex tag with the noindex attribute, which is written once in the site header.

prevents content inside this tag from being indexed. As for meta name=”robots” content=”noindex, nofollow”, it blocks the entire page from indexing, but I talked about this in this article.

Let's look at the noindex example:

This text will not appear in the Yandex search engine

Also, nesting is not so important, and the tag can be located anywhere in the html code.

Do not forget! If there is an opening tag, then there must be a closing tag