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Crawlability · can they found?

noindex tag

A hidden instruction in the page telling search engines "do not put this in results". Sometimes deliberate — a thank-you page — and sometimes left on by accident.

Why it matters

This is the single most damaging accidental setting in SEO. A noindex on an important page removes it from Google entirely, no matter how good the content is. It is frequently left behind after a site launch, because staging sites set it on purpose.

How to fix it, step by step

Quick fix — usually under ten minutes, no developer needed.

  1. 1View the page source and search for the word "noindex".
  2. 2In WordPress, check Settings → Reading and make sure "Discourage search engines from indexing this site" is UNCHECKED. This is the usual culprit after a launch.
  3. 3Also check the SEO plugin per page — Yoast and Rank Math each have an "Allow search engines to show this page?" setting in the sidebar of the editor.
  4. 4Remove the tag on any page you want found. Keep it on genuine thank-you and internal-only pages.

How to know it worked

The page source no longer contains "noindex". In Search Console, URL Inspection reports the page as indexable.

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