Noindex Settings

Noindex Settings has been replaced by the new Show in Search Results settings under Search Appearance in version 4.x of All in One SEO.

You can find the documentation for the Noindex settings in Showing or Hiding Your Content in Search Results.

You can find the documentation for the Nofollow settings in Using the Robots Meta Settings in All in One SEO.

Understanding the NOINDEX Robots Meta Tag

NOINDEX is a meta tag that can be displayed to search robots that requests them not to index content. This means that the content will not appear in search results.

For example, you don't want pages such as your privacy policy or terms pages appearing in search results. Nobody is searching for these pages. If they want to see your privacy policy or terms then they’ll visit your site and check the footer, or contact you.

Understanding the NOFOLLOW Robots Meta Tag

NOFOLLOW is a meta tag that can be displayed to search robots that requests them not to follow any links in the content. This can be useful when you don't want search engines following outbound links to other people's websites.

Now that you know what these useful meta tags do, let's look at the main settings for Noindex and Nofollow in All in One SEO.

Default to NOINDEX Setting

In the Default to Noindex setting you can control the default settings for NOINDEX for the different types of content on your site.

Check the applicable box to set the NOINDEX meta tag for that type of content. This setting can be overridden on specific posts, pages, etc.

Default to NOFOLLOW Setting

In the Default to Nofollow setting you can control the default settings for NOFOLLOW for the different types of content on your site.

Check the applicable box to set the NOFOLLOW meta tag for that type of content. This setting can be overridden on specific posts, pages, etc.

Use Noindex for Categories

This option will set the NOINDEX tag on all categories. This setting can be overridden on specific categories if you're using All in One SEO Pro.

Use Noindex for Date Archives

This option will set the NOINDEX tag on all date archives.

Use Noindex for Author Archives

This option will set the NOINDEX tag on all author archives.

Use Noindex for Tag Archives

This option will set the NOINDEX tag on all tags. This setting can be overridden on specific tags if you're using All in One SEO Pro.

Use Noindex for the Search page

This option will set the NOINDEX tag on the search results page.

Use Noindex for the 404 page

This option will set the NOINDEX tag on the 404 page. This may not work on all themes, it will depend on whether the theme has a static 404 page or dynamically generates the 404 page.

Use noindex for Taxonomy Archives

This option will set the NOINDEX tag on the archive pages for the taxonomies selected.

Use Noindex for Paginated Pages/Posts

This option will set the NOINDEX tag on paginated content, for example http://mydomain.com/page/2/ would have the NOINDEX tag but http://mydomain.com/ would not. This is for those who don't want paginated content to be indexed separately by search engines but instead only the first page be indexed.

Note:
This only applies to the paginated homepage, any post type and any taxonomy. It does not apply to archives such as date or author archives.

Use Nofollow for Paginated Pages/Posts

This option will set the NOFOLLOW tag on all paginated content, for example http://mydomain.com/page/2/ would have the NOFOLLOW tag but http://mydomain.com/ would not. This is for those who don't want search engines to follow links on paginated content.

Note:
This only applies to the paginated homepage, any post type and any taxonomy. It does not apply to archives such as date or author archives.