Which pages should not be indexed in Google?

To optimize your website’s search engine performance and maintain your indexed content’s integrity and relevance, there are some pages that should not be indexed in Google.

Pages to Avoid Indexing

  1. Duplicate Content:
    • Archive Pages: Date-based, category-based, or tag-based archives.
    • Pagination Pages: Pages that represent the second, third, etc., parts of a paginated series.
    • Print Versions: Pages that are specifically formatted for printing.
  2. Low-Value Content:
    • Tag Pages: Collections of posts under a specific tag that do not offer unique value.
    • Search Result Pages: Internal search results within your site.
    • Thin Content Pages: Pages with very little content or low informational value.
  3. Private or Restricted Content:
    • Login Pages: Pages where users log into the site.
    • User Profile Pages: Personal user profiles that should remain private.
    • Admin and Backend Pages: Pages used for site administration.
  4. Sensitive Information:
    • User Account Pages: Account settings or management pages.
    • Checkout or Payment Pages: Pages related to the payment process.
    • Thank You Pages: Pages that are displayed after a form submission or purchase.
  5. Testing and Staging Environments:
    • Test Pages: Pages used for testing site features.
    • Staging Environments: Entire sections of the site used for development and testing.
  6. Under-Construction Pages:
    • Incomplete Pages: Pages that are not fully developed or are placeholders.
  7. Attachment Pages:
    • Media Attachment Pages: Pages generated by CMS platforms like WordPress for media files.
  8. Certain Parameterized URLs:
    • Tracking URLs: URLs with parameters used for tracking purposes.
    • Session IDs: URLs that include session identifiers.

Methods to Prevent Indexing

  • Robots.txt: Use the robots.txt file to prevent search engines from crawling specific pages or directories.
User-agent: *
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /login/
  • Meta Tags: Add a <meta> tag to the HTML <head> section of the page to prevent indexing.
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">
  • HTTP Headers: Set the X-Robots-Tag HTTP header to noindex for non-HTML resources or to prevent indexing via server response.
X-Robots-Tag: noindex
  • URL Removal Tool: Utilize the URL removal tool in Google Search Console to request the urgent removal of specific pages from Google’s index.

Practical Examples

  • Login Pages:
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">
  • Sensitive Information (User Profile Pages):
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">
  • Disallowed via Robots.txt:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /checkout/

This way, it is possible to filter all the subsequent indexing by Google, making the general SEO, as well as the users’ experience of your site all the better in a result.

Should i index privacy policy and terms and services pages?

The decision of whether to index or no index the Privacy Policy and the Terms of Service pages entails certain elements that entail both an SEO factor, a user experience factor, as well as a legal factor. Here are the pros and cons of indexing these pages:

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Pros of Indexing Privacy Policy and Terms of Service Pages

Transparency and Trust:

  • Indexing these pages can help build trust with users by making it easy for them to find your privacy and legal policies via search engines.
  • In some jurisdictions, making these documents easily accessible can be part of legal compliance requirements.

SEO Benefits:

  • Having these pages indexed can contribute to the overall SEO footprint of your site, adding credibility and completeness.

Disadvantages of Indexing Privacy Policy and Terms of Service Pages

Low-Value Content:

  • These pages typically don’t provide the primary content users are searching for, and may not significantly contribute to your site’s SEO performance.

Dilution of Crawl Budget:

  • For larger sites, indexing many low-value pages can dilute your crawl budget, meaning search engines might not crawl your more important pages as often.

Potential Negative Impact on User Experience:

  • If these pages rank for irrelevant queries, it might lead to a poor user experience.

Best Practices

  • Index by Default:
    If you decide to index these pages, ensure they are properly optimized for clarity and compliance, and use clear titles and meta descriptions.
  • Noindex if Not Valuable:
    If you determine these pages do not add significant value or you want to focus your crawl budget on more critical pages, use the noindex meta tag.

Example of Noindex Tag

To prevent indexing, you can add the following meta tag to the <head> section of these pages:

<meta name="robots" content="noindex">

1. Small to Medium Websites:

  • Generally, it’s beneficial to index these pages to ensure users and search engines can easily find your legal and privacy information.

2. Large Websites with Limited Crawl Budget:

  • Consider using noindex to preserve your crawl budget for more important pages.

Practical Implementation

  • Indexing:
  <!-- No additional meta tag needed if you want to index the page -->
  • Noindexing:
  <meta name="robots" content="noindex">

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Should you have a contact us page?

The process of indexing your “Contact Us” page has quite a number of advantages. This way, the information about the contact details will be easily searchable by the potential customers and users, which optimizes usability.

Also, an indexed ‘’Contact Us’’ page also has the potential of being very useful for the SEO of the site because the site’s content and the keywords contained in such a page can be beneficial.

But it might be worth while to ensure that what ever content is placed on this particular page is both optimized and of good quality, as the page in questions might not be too useful if it is poorly designed or of low quality.

In general, the strategy of indexing the “Contact Us” page is beneficial for the site unless you have special considerations not to index it or if the site is quite small, and it will take a lot of efforts to promote it with the help of SEO techniques.

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