VercatusWhy a noindexed page cannot rank for any search
Google says a page with a noindex rule (robots meta tag or X-Robots-Tag) is dropped from Google Search results once it is recrawled, whatever its content, and that Search's generative AI features (AI Overviews, AI Mode) show only pages eligible to appear in Search. A noindexed page therefore cannot rank or be shown for any query; changing its text does not change that while the rule stands.
Maintained by Norbert Szabo. Updated . Next re-check .
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AGrade A: official documentation or a standard. A grade describes the provenance of the sources above; it is not a probability that a change will work. The effect basis says how the size of the effect is known: measured by a study, taken from an industry report, only documented without a size, or not quantified.
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