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How do I keep a page out of Google search results with a noindex tag?

Short answer

Add a meta robots tag with the noindex directive to the page head, and make sure crawlers can still reach the page, because the tag only works if it can be read. Blocking the page in robots.txt instead does not reliably remove it from results, since a blocked page can still be indexed from links. A browser-based noindex tag generator builds the exact meta tag with the directives you choose.

noindex and robots.txt do different jobs

This is the classic confusion: robots.txt controls crawling, not indexing. A page disallowed in robots.txt can still appear in results, typically as a bare URL, because search engines learned about it from links without ever fetching it. The meta robots noindex tag is the instruction that actually keeps a page out of the index, and for it to work the crawler must be allowed to fetch the page and see the tag. So to deindex a page: allow crawling, add noindex.

Choosing the directives

The generator builds a meta robots tag from the directives you pick: noindex to keep the page out of results, nofollow if links on the page should not be followed, plus options like noarchive. Most private-ish pages, thank-you screens, internal search results, staging areas that must stay public for other reasons, need only noindex. Use robots.txt for what it is for, steering crawl activity, and keep a generator handy for that file too.

Verify the removal

After adding the tag, the page drops out after the next crawl, which can take days. You can check the page head to confirm the tag ships, and use your search console's inspection tooling to confirm the directive was seen.

Step by step

  1. Generate the tag. Pick noindex, plus any extra directives like nofollow, in the generator.
  2. Add it to the page head. Paste the meta robots tag into the head of the page you want removed.
  3. Keep the page crawlable. Do not block the page in robots.txt, the crawler must fetch the page to see the noindex.
  4. Confirm after recrawl. Check with your search console that the directive was picked up on the next crawl.

Frequently asked questions

Why not just block the page in robots.txt?

Blocking stops crawling, not indexing. The URL can still appear in results from links. noindex is the directive that removes it, and it requires the page to be crawlable.

How long until the page disappears from results?

After the page is next crawled and the tag is processed, which can take from days to a few weeks depending on crawl frequency.

Does noindex also stop links on the page from being followed?

No. That is the separate nofollow directive, which you can include in the same meta tag if you want both.

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