Noindex, Nofollow & Robots Directives
TL;DR
Robots directives (noindex, nofollow) control which pages search engines index and which links pass ranking power. Misuse can invisibly kill your traffic.
Explain Simply
Imagine a library where you can put 'Do Not Catalog' stickers on books (noindex) or 'Don't recommend other books mentioned here' stickers (nofollow). One wrong sticker and nobody can find your book.
Meta robots directives control how search engines process pages: noindex (exclude from index), nofollow (don't follow links), noarchive, noimageindex. Set via or HTTP X-Robots-Tag header. rel="nofollow" on individual links prevents PageRank transfer.
Noindex is powerful — it completely removes a page from search results. Use it for internal search results, thin paginated archives, and login pages. But accidental noindex on important pages is a common and devastating mistake.
The nofollow attribute on links tells Google not to pass PageRank through that link. Use sparingly: for user-generated content (comments), paid/sponsored links, and untrusted URLs. Over-using nofollow on your own internal links wastes crawl budget.
⚡Why It Matters
Incorrect noindex can completely remove a page from Google. All external links being nofollow is a 'link equity hoarding' signal — reduces E-E-A-T trust. After site migrations, accidental noindex tags are the #1 cause of traffic drops.
🔍How AiSEO Checks
AiSEO checks meta robots, detects unintentional noindex, warns about all-nofollow external links, and ensures canonical/noindex don't conflict.
AiSEO Score Impact
Up to 3 points in the Technical category (25% of total score)
Fix Difficulty
Editor: Easy | Developer: Easy | AI Agent: Easy