This is one of 17 reasons in the Page indexing report. See every reason and whether to fix it.
What a Noindex Tag Looks Like
It is either a meta tag in the page's <head>:
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">or an HTTP header sent with the page: X-Robots-Tag: noindex. Google follows both (Google, block indexing with noindex).
On Purpose or by Mistake?
| Page | Usually |
|---|---|
| Thank-you, login, account, cart | On purpose |
| Tag, author or date archives | On purpose on many sites |
| Internal search results | On purpose |
| Product, service, blog, location or home page | A mistake. Fix it |
| Every page on the site | A mistake, often a setting left on from the build |
Where the Noindex Comes From, by Platform
| Platform | Where to look |
|---|---|
| WordPress | Settings > Reading, "Discourage search engines" (whole site, see the WordPress box). Per page: Yoast's Advanced tab or Rank Math's Robots Meta. Archives: tags and categories |
| Shopify | Theme code or an SEO app. Search theme.liquid for noindex. See Shopify noindex |
| Wix | The page's SEO settings: "Let search engines index this page" |
| Webflow | Custom code in the page settings or site settings, inside the head tag |
| Squarespace | The page's SEO settings: the option to hide the page from search results |
If the page source shows no meta tag, check the header: URL Inspection > View crawled page > More info lists the HTTP response headers. A plugin, CDN or server rule can add X-Robots-Tag.
How to Fix It and Get the Page Indexed
- Remove the noindex setting or code, and publish.
- In URL Inspection, click Test live URL. It should say indexing is allowed.
- Click Request indexing.
- In the Page indexing report, open the row and click Validate fix.
Do not block the page in robots.txt at the same time. Google says that for noindex to work, the page "must not be blocked by a robots.txt file", because a blocked crawler never sees the tag. The same applies the other way: a robots.txt block will not remove a page, a noindex will.
How to Use This with an AI Assistant
Connect SEOmatic at https://seomatic.ai/mcp and ask: "Sign me in with connect_seomatic. Use gsc_indexing (action: batch_inspect) on my main pages and list any excluded by a noindex tag. Tell me which I probably meant and which look like mistakes, then stage the fixes for my approval." In Approval mode, nothing on your site changes until you approve.
Let the Agents Fix Your Indexing Problems
SEOmatic's AI agents read your own Google Search Console data and fix what keeps pages out of Google, directly in your CMS:
- Remove stray noindex tags and correct canonicals on pages that should rank
- Fix robots.txt rules that block pages you want in Google
- Submit your sitemap and request indexing for pages that are ready
Each change can wait for your approval, one click undoes it, and the agents check it against how the rest of your site did. What they can change depends on your platform, and you see the full list before anything runs.
14-Day Trial for $1, credited to your first payment.
More From the Page Indexing Fix Guide
- The GuidePage Indexing: Why Pages Aren't Indexed
- GuideCrawled, Currently Not Indexed: The Fix
- GuideDiscovered, Currently Not Indexed: The Fix
- GuideSoft 404: What It Is and How to Fix It
- GuidePage Is Not Indexed: Page with Redirect
- GuideAlternate Page with Proper Canonical Tag: Meaning
- GuideDuplicate Without User-Selected Canonical: The Fix
- GuideWhy Is My Website Not Showing Up on Google?
- GuideBlocked by robots.txt: What It Means and the Fix
- GuideIndexed, Though Blocked by robots.txt
- The ChecklistSite Migration SEO Checklist