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seo.noindex-pages
Why this matters
A noindex instruction tells Google to keep a page out of search results entirely. That is exactly right for a thank-you page or a checkout step, and catastrophic on a page you want found — it is invisible, and no amount of other work will change that until the instruction is removed. It is worth checking because it is usually left behind by accident after a redesign.
Who fixes it
You can, usually
Roughly how long
Minutes
Care needed
Low risk to change
How to fix it
Remove <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> from pages that should be found, and check the server is not sending an X-Robots-Tag header — a header noindex is invisible in the page source, which is why it is so often missed.
On your platform
WordPress
Two places, and check the first one first: Settings → Reading → untick 'Discourage search engines from indexing this site', which hides the whole site in one tick and is the usual cause when several pages are reported together. It is most often left on because the site was built on a staging copy and the tick came across with it. Then check the SEO plugin's per-page setting — Yoast and Rank Math both phrase it as allowing search engines to show the page.
Shopify
Shopify has no per-page noindex switch in the admin, so this comes from the theme: a robots meta tag with a condition in `theme.liquid`, or an SEO app that writes one. Online Store → Themes → Edit code and search `theme.liquid` for `noindex`. Note that Shopify deliberately keeps cart, search and account pages out of search on its own, which is correct and not what this is reporting.
Drupal
The Metatag module's Robots settings, which exist at three levels — global, per content type, and per node — and the narrower one wins. A whole content type suddenly hidden is nearly always the content type setting rather than the pages themselves.
Joomla
Two places, as on WordPress. Global Configuration → Site → Metadata → Robots applies to the entire site, and 'No index, no follow' there hides everything — check it first. The per-page setting is the Robots field on the article's Publishing tab, or on the menu item's Metadata tab, and the menu item wins where a page is reached through one.
How we score it
Failing this check takes up to 25 points off your search score. It is a fact about your site rather than a measurement, so it reads the same on every scan until you change something.
Does your site pass this one?
This check runs on every scan, along with the other 106. Free, no account, and you see the evidence for each result.
Check my siteOther search checks
- Canonical tags point somewhere validA canonical tag tells Google which address is the real one for a page. When it points somewhere wrong — another domain, a dead page, or the wrong protocol — Google follows it anyway, and the page you wanted indexed can be dropped in favour of one that does not exist.
- Content has been updated recentlySome content is meant to sit still, and age alone is not a fault. But prices, opening hours and staff pages that have not been touched in over a year are usually wrong by now — and a visitor who acts on the wrong opening hours does not come back to check whether the rest was right.
- Descriptions are a sensible lengthLong descriptions get truncated mid-sentence; very short ones waste the space you are given.
- Each page has exactly one title tagA page can only have one title. When there are several, the browser and Google each pick one — and they do not always pick the same one, so what you see in the tab may not be what appears in search.
- Each page has one main headingSeveral top-level headings makes the structure of the page ambiguous. Worth checking rather than urgent — modern HTML permits it, and Google handles it, but it usually signals that headings are being chosen for their size.
- Every page has a main headingThe h1 is the headline of the page. Without one, both visitors skimming and search engines parsing the page have nothing telling them what it is about.