When To Use No Index On A Website

In SEO Web Design, It's OK to use No Index on some pages

Usually in SEO, you want as many pages as possible to be indexed and added to the search results pages. So why use a no index tag?

What is a No Index tag?

A no index tag is a special signal that is sent to search engine spiders telling them to not consider that specific page for indexing. Meaning that you do not want that specific page to show up in the search engine's results page. This tag has to be added to every page on an individual basis that you do not want to show up in search engine results pages.

Where should I use the No Index Tag

This can be a bit tricky, but there are a few areas that you would not want to show up in the search results.

Thank You Pages

The first type of page that comes to mind would be a thank you page. Usually, the only way you want someone to get to the thank you page would be to fill out a form or perform another action that once that action is taken, the user is taken to that page.

Landing Page For A Promotion

If you are having a special promotion for people who are coming in from another website, you don't want your regular website visitors to find that page from a search result. For example, for people who are coming in from a social network website that has a special deal just for them, you really only want people who came from that social network site to have that deal. 

Under Construction And Testing Pages

If you have a page that is hidden in your website that is still under construction, you don't want it to get indexed before it is ready. This can happen when there are multiple people that need to be involved in a project and they need to test it in a live environment. With situations like this, it can take a long time before the final version of a web page is up and running.

Where should I not use the No Index Tag?

You should not use the No Index Tag on any pages that you want to get indexed. Specifically, your home page, your services pages, your product pages, your contact pages, and any others that you want your customers to find. Although many people will land on your homepage, it is possible that they will land on deeper pages that will take more than one click to get to. This is good as it gets your customers to the items they want faster VS going to your homepage first and then moving from there.