Google On Phantom Noindex Errors In Search Console

Google’s John Mueller recently answered a question about phantom noindex errors reported in Google Search Console. Mueller asserted that these reports may be real.

Noindex In Google Search Console

A noindex robots directive is one of the few commands that Google must obey, one of the few ways that a site owner can exercise control over Googlebot, Google’s indexer.

And yet it’s not totally uncommon for search console to report being unable to index a page because of a noindex directive that seemingly does not have a noindex directive on it, at least none that is visible in the HTML code.

When Google Search Console (GSC) reports “Submitted URL marked ‘noindex’,” it is reporting a seemingly contradictory situation:

• The site asked Google to index the page via an entry in a Sitemap.
• The page sent Google a signal not to index it (via a noindex directive).

It’s a confusing message from Search Console that a page is preventing Google from indexing it when that’s not…