DEV Community

Zyo Digitals
Zyo Digitals

Posted on

How to Remove the Noindex Tag in WordPress

The noindex tag is a specific type of meta tag embedded within the HTML of a webpage. This tag directs search engines to exclude a particular page from their index. Essentially, it tells search engine crawlers not to include the page in search results, which means it will not appear when users perform searches related to its content. Today we are going to explore how to remove the noindex tag in wordpress.

For website owners and SEO professionals, understanding and properly managing the noindex tag is crucial. When used correctly, it can help manage your website’s visibility and ensure that search engines focus on the content you want to highlight. However, if misapplied or left unchanged, it can prevent important content from being discovered by potential visitors.
Why You Might Need to Remove the Noindex Tag in WordPress
Removing the noindex tag is an essential step for enhancing a website’s visibility and search engine performance. This action is necessary when the tag has been mistakenly applied or when your SEO strategy evolves, requiring a shift in how content is indexed.

Reasons for Removing the noindex Tag:

Site Launch: Once a website or specific pages are ready for public viewing, the noindex tag should be removed to allow these pages to be indexed by search engines. This ensures that all relevant content is accessible to users through search results.
SEO Strategy Updates: As your SEO strategy develops, you might need to revisit pages that were previously set to noindex. Updating these settings allows you to align with new SEO goals and ensure that valuable content is included in search engine indices.
Error Correction: Sometimes, the noindex tag is applied by mistake due to incorrect settings or configuration issues. Correcting these errors is vital to ensure that all intended pages are properly indexed and available to search engine users.
Instant guide to Remove the Noindex Tag in WordPress
Understanding the noindex Tag
How the noindex Tag Works
The noindex tag functions by being placed in the HTML code of a webpage. Specifically, it is inserted within the

section of the page’s HTML. When a search engine crawler encounters this tag, it understands that the page should be excluded from the index.

This means that the page will not be included in search results, effectively hiding it from users searching for relevant content. The tag operates on a meta level, providing direct instructions to search engine bots about how to handle the page.

Functionality of the noindex Tag:

The tag is added using the following line of code:


Meta Tag Placement: This line of code is placed in the

section of the HTML, making it an integral part of the page’s metadata.
Search Engine Response: Search engines, upon detecting this tag, will exclude the page from their index. This action prevents the page from appearing in search results.
Impact on Visibility: The result is that the page is not displayed in search engine results pages (SERPs). This can be beneficial in managing what content is visible to users but can also limit the page’s potential to attract traffic if applied incorrectly.
How to Identify the noindex Tag
Inspecting Page Source
To determine if a page has the noindex tag, you can inspect the page’s source code. This process involves viewing the HTML code of the page to check for the presence of the tag.

Steps to Inspect Page Source:

Open Page Source: Navigate to the page you want to inspect. Right-click on the page and select “View Page Source” or “Inspect” from the context menu.

Search for noindex: In the page source view, use the search function (Ctrl + F or Command + F) to find the term . This will highlight any occurrences of the tag.

Verify the Tag: Ensure that the noindex tag is present within the

section of the HTML. This confirms that the page is set to be excluded from indexing.

Top comments (0)