noindex and nofollow are two of the most commonly confused directives in SEO. They operate at different levels and solve different problems: noindex tells Google not to include a specific page in its search index, while rel="nofollow" tells Google how to treat a specific outbound link. Mixing them up leads to pages staying in the index when you want them gone, or link signals leaking when you intended to block them.
What noindex Does (and Where It Goes)
The noindex directive is an instruction to Google’s crawler about whether to include a page in its search results. According to Google Search Central, “when Googlebot crawls that page and extracts the tag or header, Google will drop that page entirely from Google Search results.”
You can deliver the noindex directive in two ways:
Via a meta robots tag in the <head>:
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">Via an HTTP response header (useful for non-HTML resources like PDFs):
X-Robots-Tag: noindexCommon situations where you’d use noindex: thin or duplicate content, internal search results pages, staging or admin areas, thank-you pages after form submissions, and any page that exists for functional reasons but adds no search value.
The robots.txt Pitfall You Must Avoid
This is the most dangerous mistake with noindex, and it is counterintuitive.
If you block a page in robots.txt using Disallow, Google’s crawler cannot access that page. If the crawler cannot access the page, it cannot read the noindex tag. Google’s documentation states clearly: “For the noindex rule to be effective, the page or resource must not be blocked by a robots.txt file. If the page is blocked by a robots.txt file or the crawler can’t access the page, the crawler will never see the noindex rule, and the page can still appear in search results.”
The fix: if you want a page removed from the index, allow Google to crawl it, and use noindex in the meta tag or response header. Do not Disallow it in robots.txt.
What nofollow Does (and Its Two Scopes)
nofollow operates at the link level, not the page level. It tells Google not to associate your site with a linked page or pass ranking signals through that specific link. Per Google’s outbound link guidance: “Use the nofollow value when other values don’t apply, and you’d rather Google not associate your site with, or crawl the linked page from, your site.”
There are two distinct scopes for nofollow that practitioners often conflate:
1. Per-link rel="nofollow" (the common usage):
<a href="https://example.com" rel="nofollow">Anchor text</a>This applies to a single <a> tag. It signals that this specific link should not be used to associate your site with the destination or pass ranking signals.
2. Page-level <meta name="robots" content="nofollow">:
<meta name="robots" content="nofollow">According to Google’s robots meta tag documentation: “Do not follow the links on this page. If you don’t specify this rule, Google may use the links on the page to discover those linked pages.” This applies to all links on the page rather than a specific one.
In practice, the per-link rel="nofollow" is far more commonly used and more surgical. The page-level version is a blunt instrument that affects every outbound link on the page.
nofollow Is a Hint, Not a Directive
Since September 2019, Google treats rel="nofollow" (along with rel="sponsored" and rel="ugc") as a hint rather than a strict instruction. This means Google may choose to follow and use nofollow links for crawling or ranking purposes when it sees fit. The linked pages “may be found through other means, such as sitemaps or links from other sites, and thus they may still be crawled.”
For link building and backlink auditing purposes, this distinction matters: a nofollow link from a high-authority site may still carry some indirect value, even if Google formally treats the nofollow signal as advisory. You can read more about whether nofollow links help SEO in our analysis of whether nofollow links help SEO.
For more context on how rel="sponsored" and rel="ugc" fit into this framework, see our guide to rel=sponsored and rel=ugc.
noindex vs nofollow at a Glance
| noindex | rel=”nofollow” | |
|---|---|---|
| What it controls | Whether the page appears in Google’s index | How Google treats a specific outbound link |
| Where it goes | <meta> tag or X-Robots-Tag HTTP header | rel attribute on an <a> tag (or page-level <meta>) |
| Directive or hint? | Directive (Google follows this) | Hint since 2019 (Google may override) |
| Scope | The entire page | A single link (or all links on a page if page-level) |
| Typical use case | Remove thin/duplicate/private pages from search | Flag untrusted, paid, or user-generated outbound links |
| Can the page still be crawled? | Yes, must be crawlable for it to work | Yes, the destination page can still be crawled via other paths |
Combinations and What They Actually Do
The four common configurations you’ll encounter:
| Configuration | What Google Does |
|---|---|
noindex only | Drops the page from the index; still crawls it; follows outbound links normally |
noindex, nofollow | Drops the page from the index; treats all outbound links as hinted nofollow |
index, nofollow | Keeps the page indexed; treats all outbound links as hinted nofollow |
Robots.txt Disallow only | May prevent crawling; page may still appear in index (title/URL from other signals); noindex on the blocked page is invisible to Google |
The noindex, nofollow combination in a meta robots tag is the most complete way to both remove a page from the index and signal that its links should not pass ranking value. But remember: even then, nofollow is a hint, not a guarantee.
Which One Should You Use?
Use noindex when you want to keep a page out of Google’s search results entirely: duplicate content, pagination, internal search result pages, admin pages, staging environments, or any page you control that should not rank.
Use rel=”nofollow” when you are linking to an external page you do not want to vouch for: paid or sponsored links (where rel="sponsored" is now preferred), user-generated content links (rel="ugc" is now preferred), or any outbound link to an untrusted source.
A deeper breakdown of when to use each link attribute is in our guide on dofollow vs nofollow links.
A Note for Backlink Auditors
When you are auditing backlinks pointing at your own site, noindex on those referring pages is largely irrelevant to your analysis. What matters for your inbound link profile is the rel attribute on the specific <a> tag linking to you: whether it is dofollow, nofollow, sponsored, or ugc. That attribute determines how Google treats the link’s ranking signal.
BacklinkTower checks the rel attribute on every inbound link so you can see your dofollow/nofollow split, catch over-anchor-text patterns, and generate a disavow file for genuinely toxic links. The indexing status of the referring page is a separate question, though a noindexed page can still pass link signals.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you use noindex and nofollow together?
Yes. Placing <meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow"> in your page <head> tells Google to remove the page from its index and treat all outbound links on that page as hinted nofollow. This is the most complete combination for a page you want excluded from search with no link equity flowing out.
Does nofollow stop a page from being indexed?
No. rel="nofollow" on a link tells Google how to treat that link; it says nothing about whether the destination page gets indexed. The destination page can be indexed normally through other links, sitemaps, or direct crawling. Only a noindex directive on the destination page itself keeps it out of the index.
Is noindex the same as blocking a page in robots.txt?
No, and combining them is a common mistake. A Disallow rule in robots.txt prevents Googlebot from crawling the page. If the page is not crawled, Google cannot read the noindex tag, so the page can still appear in search results based on signals Google found elsewhere (like links or cached versions). To properly remove a page from the index, allow crawling and use noindex in the meta tag or HTTP header.
Does rel=nofollow still work in 2026?
Google still reads and acts on rel="nofollow", but it treats it as a hint rather than a strict directive since 2019. That means Google may choose to follow nofollow links for crawling or use them for ranking purposes at its discretion. For paid links, rel="sponsored" is now the preferred attribute; for user-generated content, rel="ugc" is preferred. rel="nofollow" remains acceptable for both cases.
Should I use noindex or nofollow on a page I don’t want in Google?
Use noindex. That is the correct directive for removing a page from Google’s search index. nofollow does not remove pages from the index; it only affects how Google treats links. If you want the page out of search results, put <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> in the <head> of that page, and make sure the page is not blocked by robots.txt or the directive will never be seen.
What is the difference between page-level nofollow and link-level rel=nofollow?
Page-level nofollow (<meta name="robots" content="nofollow">) applies to all links on the page in a single declaration. Link-level rel="nofollow" applies to one specific <a> tag. In most cases, the per-link attribute is the right choice because it gives you surgical control: you can nofollow a paid link in the sidebar without affecting every other link on the page.
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