Blog

Google’s John Mueller clarifies Old ‘Maybe’ on the Use of Noindex and Canonical on the Same Page,

Google’s John Mueller has clarified the long-running debate on whether it is okay to have the noindex rule and canonical tag on the same page. In 2021, he said both might ‘maybe’ work, but he provided more information today to clear out the position.

Noindex rule and rel=canonical

An HTML element is similar to the building block of a web page. Rel=canonical is identical, but it’s an attribute to add and delete alters the element with additional information.

Google’s documentation states:

“rel=” canonical” link annotations: A strong signal that the specified URL should become canonical.”

Here’s How Noindex And Canonical Should Really Work:

• The noindex rule is a directive that Google’s algorithm must obey.
• A “strong signal” that can be ignored: the rel=canonical

The problem is that noindex seemingly supersedes canonical because, in theory, Google won’t even see it. So if Google can’t see the canonical, why did John Mueller previously state in a video from 2021 that it is acceptable to use both?

What Mueller Said In 2021

The commenter referenced an SEO Office Hours Hangout YouTube video from 2021 wherein Mueller was advised to use either the canonical or the noindex rule and showed a comparison of the difference. Later, he qualified that statement by saying that both noindex and canonical can be used together. Then, he qualified that statement again by saying “maybe” Google will forward the canonical signal, keeping a page out of the index while also canonicalizing the preferred web page.

This is part of the 2021 video of Mueller that the person asking the question referred to:

“…you can also do both of them.
And it’s something… if external links, for example, point at this page, then having both of them there kind of helps us figure out 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:

In the above, you can see how John Mueller qualified his statement by putting a “maybe” there. Which means it’s not an absolute black-and-white statement but rather a statement colored with shades of gray. Mueller didn’t explain why he used the word “maybe” when he answered, but it’s worth noting.

Is It Okay To Use Noindex & Canonical Tag?

This is the question that was asked on Reddit:

“Hi, u/johnmu. I was watching this …, in which you advise using noindex and canonical tags at the same time.

Please confirm if this is still valid. If the indexed page has a canonical tag, you will forward backlink signals to the canonical version.

For example, CNN links to /t-shirt/gray/?price=50 page which is noindexed. One can add canonical tag /t-shirt/gray/ alongside with noindex and Google may forward the CNN link signal to the canonical version.

Thanks”

John Mueller Answers Noindex & Canonical Question:

Mueller said it was better to use either/or instead of both. He said, “One or the other might be crawled by Google, that’s why he said maybe in the 2021 YouTube 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. Also, it’s helpful to be realistic: sometimes (often) having a good site structure that generally works well for search engines is better than hyper-focusing on links (or any other individual aspect of SEO).”

Mueller’s Answer Explains Use Of Noindex And Canonical!

His answer explains a lot and clarifies why he hedged in 2021 by using the word “maybe” while not quite explaining why Google may or may not pick up a canonical when a noindex rule is invoked.

For those who want a bit more detail about why Mueller said the canonical might get picked up. There’s this tweet by Google’s Gary Illyes from 2020 in which he explains the technical reason. Why Google might see the links even if there is a noindex in place.

A nerdy detail is that the guy who tweeted that question in 2020 wanted a robot meta noindex with a “follow” directive-but, of course, the thing is that there isn’t such a thing as a “follow” directive, at least according to Google’s official documentation on the robots meta tag. There isn’t such a thing as a “follow” directive because, well, following links is the default behavior of Googlebot.

Gary tweeted:

“Something with noindex will never reach the serving index, but we will have the fetched copy for things like link graph calculation.”

A “link graph” calculation refers to the (reduced) link graph of websites, which is a map of link relationships between pages and websites.

Visit us for more updates or contact us for services. Call or email for further details, or check our customer reviews on Google Maps.