Google’s John Mueller has clarified the ongoing confusion about whether it’s suitable to use a noindex rule and a canonical tag on the same page. A 2021 statement suggested that combining both might ‘maybe’ work, but his latest comments provide a more detailed and definitive explanation.
Noindex Rule And Rel=Canonical
An HTML element can be considered a building block of a web page, and an attribute (like rel=canonical) modifies the element with additional information.
Google’s documentation states:
“rel=”canonical” link annotations: A strong signal that the specified URL should become canonical.”
Here is how the noindex and canonical are supposed to work:
- The noindex rule is a directive that Google must obey.
- The rel=canonical is a “strong signal” that can be ignored.
The issue is that the noindex seemingly cancels out the canonical because, in theory, Google won’t see it. So if Google can’t see the canonical, why did John Mueller previously say in a 2021 video that it’s okay to use both?
What Mueller Said In 2021
During an SEO Office Hours Hangout YouTube video in 2021, Mueller recommended using either the canonical or the noindex rule while explaining the distinctions. However, he later hedged, saying that both noindex and canonical can be used simultaneously, qualifying that statement by stating that “maybe” Google might forward the canonical signal, thus keeping a page out of the index while also canonicalizing the preferred web page.
The relevant part from the 2021 video of Mueller:
“…you can also do both of them.
If external links, for instance, are pointing at this page, having both there helps us to determine that you don’t want this page indexed, but you also specified another one.
So maybe some of the signals we can just forward along.”
Screenshot Of 2021 SEO Office Hours Hangout Video
As referenced above, John Mueller qualified his statement with a “maybe,” implying that it wasn’t a black-and-white statement but rather one with shades of gray. Mueller didn’t elaborate on why he used “maybe,” but it’s a nuance worth noting.
Is It Okay To Use Noindex & Canonical Tag?
This is the question asked on Reddit:
“Hi u/johnmu, I was watching a video where you advised using noindex and canonical tags at the same time.
Can you please confirm if this is still valid, and in case a noindexed page has a canonical tag, will you forward backlink signals to the canonical version?
For example, if a site links to a noindexed page, one can add a canonical tag alongside with noindex, and Google may forward the backlink signal to the canonical version.
thanks”
John Mueller Answers Noindex & Canonical Question:
Mueller provided a more definitive response, stating it’s best to choose one or the other, explaining that a noindexed canonical might not be picked up by Google, thus explaining why he said “maybe” in the 2021 video.
He wrote:
“…I’d just pick one (noindex or followed links). Links on a noindexed page can be picked up, but it’s not guaranteed. SEO is often about making your preference very clear and not about maybe’s. Also, it’s helpful to be realistic: sometimes (often) having a good site structure that works well for search engines is better than hyper-focusing on links (or any other aspect of SEO).”
Mueller’s Answer Explains Use Of Noindex & Canonical
His response clarifies why he hedged in 2021 with a “maybe” without getting into the specifics of why Google may or may not pick up a canonical when a noindex rule is used.
For those seeking more details about why Mueller said the canonical might be picked up, there was a tweet in 2020 by Google’s Gary Illyes explaining the technical reason why Google might recognize links even with a noindex in place.
A detail worth mentioning is that the person tweeting the 2020 question inquired about a robots meta noindex with a “follow” directive, even though there is no “follow” directive as per Google’s robots meta tag documentation. There’s no “follow” directive since following links is Googlebot’s default behavior.
Gary tweeted:
“something with noindex will never reach the serving index, but we will have the fetched copy for link graph calculation.”
A “link graph” calculation refers to the map of link relationships between pages and websites.
Screenshot Of Gary Illyes’ Tweet
Read John Mueller’s answer to the question of using noindex with canonical tag?
