What is the difference between noindex and nofollow?

noindex tells Google not to include a page in its search index — the page will never appear in search results. nofollow tells Google not to follow or pass ranking credit to the links on a page or a specific link. noindex affects the page itself. nofollow affects the links. You can use them independently or together depending on your goal.

What are Coverage errors in Google Search Console?

Coverage errors in Google Search Console are reports that show which pages on your website Google could not crawl, could not index, or chose not to index — and the exact reason why. Common errors include: Submitted URL not found (404), Server error (5xx), Redirect error, Excluded by noindex tag, Crawled but not indexed, and Alternate page with proper canonical tag.

What is a canonical tag and how does it fix duplicate content?

A canonical tag is an HTML link element placed in the head section of a page. It tells Google which URL is the original master version when duplicate content exists. Google consolidates all ranking signals to the canonical URL and ignores the duplicates. For example, if your course page is accessible at both https://a2itsoft.com/courses and https://www.a2itsoft.com/courses, you add a canonical on both pointing to the www version as the original.

How do I fix 'Crawled but not indexed' in Google Search Console?

Crawled but not indexed means Google visited your page but decided not to add it to its index. Common reasons include thin content (too little useful text), duplicate content (very similar to another page), poor page quality, or slow loading. To fix it: add more unique and valuable content to the page (at least 500-800 words of useful text), improve the page's internal linking, ensure the page loads fast, and use the URL Inspection tool to request re-indexing after improvements.

Where can I learn technical SEO indexing practically in Mohali or Chandigarh?

A2IT InternEdge in Phase 8, Mohali offers a Digital Marketing and SEO Internship Course where you learn technical SEO including indexing control, Google Search Console, canonical tags, hreflang, and more with live projects and placement support. Visit https://www.a2itsoft.com/digital-marketing-internship-course to book a free demo class.

Technical SEO Indexing Guide: noindex, Coverage Errors & Canonical

Q: What is indexing in SEO?

Indexing in SEO is the process where Google stores a copy of your page in its database after crawling and rendering it. Only indexed pages can appear in Google search results. If a page is not indexed, it is completely invisible in Google — no matter how good your content is. You can check which pages are indexed using Google Search Console's Coverage or Pages report.

📘 Part 4 of 7 — Technical SEO Audit Masterclass

Series Progress

1 · Introduction 2 · Crawling 3 · Rendering 4 · Indexing 5 · Core Web Vitals 6 · Schema 7 · Site Structure

Indexing — Controlling What Gets Into Google's Index

You have learned how Google finds your pages (crawling) and how it reads them (rendering). Now comes the third and most critical step — indexing.

Indexing is when Google stores a copy of your page in its massive database. Only indexed pages can appear in Google search results. If your page is not in the index — it simply does not exist for Google, no matter how good your content is.

But indexing is not just about getting your pages IN the index. It is also about keeping the wrong pages OUT. Login pages, thank-you pages, admin panels, and duplicate content should never be in Google's index. Poor indexing control is one of the most common and damaging SEO mistakes.

📦 ANALOGY

Think of Google's index like a library catalogue. Indexing = adding your book to the catalogue so people can find it. But you also need to make sure your rough drafts, private notes, and duplicate copies do NOT get listed in the catalogue — otherwise the catalogue becomes messy and readers lose trust in it.

💡 KEY FACT

Google does not index every page it crawls. It decides whether a page is worth indexing based on quality, uniqueness, and usefulness. A page can be crawled but NOT indexed — this is one of the most common issues students find in Google Search Console.

🎯

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1. Noindex and Nofollow Tags — When and Where to Use Them

These two tags are the most important tools you have to control what Google indexes and how it treats your links. Many beginners confuse them — let us make them crystal clear.

🚫 noindex

What it does: Tells Google NOT to add this page to its search index. The page will never appear in search results.

Affects: The page itself.

Login and register pages
Thank-you pages after forms
Admin and dashboard pages
Staging/dev site pages
Paginated pages (page 5+)
Filtered product/course pages

🔗 nofollow

What it does: Tells Google not to follow a link or pass ranking credit (link equity) through it.

Affects: The links on a page or a specific link.

Paid/sponsored links
User-generated content (comments)
Untrusted external links
Affiliate links
Links in forum posts
Login/register page links

How to add noindex tag — with code examples

Method 1 — Meta robots tag in HTML head (most common)

<!-- Add this inside the <head> section of pages you want to hide from Google --><!-- Hide page from Google completely --><meta name="robots" content="noindex"><!-- Hide page AND don't follow any links on it --><meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow"><!-- Allow indexing but don't follow links (rare use case) --><meta name="robots" content="index, nofollow"><!-- Normal page — Google indexes it and follows all links --><meta name="robots" content="index, follow">

Method 2 — X-Robots-Tag in HTTP response header (for PDFs and non-HTML files)

# Add to your server config or .htaccess for PDF files# This blocks Google from indexing PDFs in your /private/ folder<FilesMatch "\.pdf$"> Header set X-Robots-Tag "noindex"
</FilesMatch>

Method 3 — Nofollow on a specific link

<!-- Make ONE specific link nofollow (e.g. affiliate or paid link) --><a href="https://partnerwebsite.com" rel="nofollow">Visit Partner</a><!-- Sponsored link — use rel="sponsored" (Google's preferred tag) --><a href="https://advertiser.com" rel="sponsored">Ad Link</a><!-- User-generated content link (forums, comments) --><a href="https://userlink.com" rel="ugc">User Link</a>

⚠ CRITICAL

Never add noindex to a page AND block it in robots.txt at the same time. If robots.txt blocks the page, Google cannot crawl it — which means it cannot read the noindex tag either. The page may stay indexed. Always allow crawling for pages you want to noindex.

When to use noindex — practical examples for A2IT website

Page type	Example URL	noindex?	Reason
Homepage	/	NO — index it	Most important page — must be in Google
Course pages	/digital-marketing-internship-course	NO — index it	These bring organic traffic and leads
Blog posts	/blog/what-is-technical-seo-audit	NO — index it	Blog content drives SEO traffic
Thank you page	/thank-you	YES — noindex	No SEO value — users land here after form
Login page	/login	YES — noindex	Private — should not appear in search
Admin panel	/admin	YES — noindex + robots.txt block	Security risk if indexed
Private items	/public/items/J973789556	YES — noindex	Private order data — must not be indexed
Search results page	/search?q=python	YES — noindex	Thin content — creates infinite URLs
Paginated pages	/blog?page=8	YES (deep pages)	Pages beyond page 3-4 have thin content

💡 STUDENT TASK

Go to your website and list 5 pages that should be noindexed. Check each one using URL Inspection in Google Search Console — are any of them accidentally indexed right now? If yes, add the noindex meta tag and request removal.

2. Coverage Errors in Google Search Console — Explained

The Coverage report (now called the Pages report in newer GSC versions) is the most important report for indexing. It shows every page Google knows about on your website and exactly what happened to it.

How to find the Coverage / Pages report

Open Google Search Console.
In the left sidebar, click Indexing → Pages.
You will see four tabs: All known pages, Failed, Valid with warnings, Valid, Not indexed.
Click Not indexed — this lists all pages Google found but chose not to index, with the exact reason for each.
Click any reason to see the specific pages affected and get details on how to fix them.

Most common Coverage errors — explained with fixes

🔴

Submitted URL not found (404)

You submitted a URL in your sitemap but Google found a 404 error (page not found) when it visited it. The page does not exist or has been deleted.

Fix: Remove the URL from your sitemap. If the page should exist, restore it or set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one.

🔴

Server error (5xx)

Google tried to visit your page but your server returned a 500-level error — meaning the server crashed or failed to respond. Google cannot index what it cannot access.

Fix: Check your hosting server logs. Common causes are PHP errors, database connection failures, or server overload. Fix the server issue then request re-crawling.

🟡

Crawled but not indexed

Google visited and rendered your page successfully but decided NOT to add it to the index. This is usually because Google considers the content thin, low quality, or too similar to other pages.

Fix: Add more unique, useful content (500+ words minimum). Improve internal linking to the page. Ensure the page loads fast. After improvements, use URL Inspection → Request Indexing.

🟡

Discovered but not crawled

Google found your page (via sitemap or links) but has not visited it yet. This is usually a crawl budget issue — Google knows the page exists but has not prioritised crawling it.

Fix: Improve page speed, reduce crawl budget waste on low-value pages, and add more internal links pointing to this page. For important pages, use URL Inspection → Request Indexing.

🟡

Alternate page with proper canonical tag

This page has a canonical tag pointing to a different URL. Google is indexing the canonical version instead of this one. This is often intentional and correct — but sometimes the canonical is set wrong by mistake.

Fix: Check the canonical tag on the page. If it is pointing to the correct URL, this is not an error — it is working as intended. If the canonical is wrong, correct the tag to point to the right URL.

🟡

Excluded by noindex tag

You (or your developer) added a noindex meta tag to this page. Google found it and is respecting it by not indexing the page. This is intentional for pages like login, thank-you, or admin pages.

Fix: If this page SHOULD be indexed, remove the noindex tag and request indexing. If it should NOT be indexed, leave it — this is working correctly.

🟡

Redirect error

Google followed a redirect but it was broken — either the redirect chain is too long (5+ hops), the redirect loops back to itself, or the redirect destination returns an error.

Fix: Use Screaming Frog to find redirect chains. Fix all redirects to point directly to the final destination URL in one single 301 hop. See Part 2 of this series for detailed redirect chain fixes.

🟡

Blocked by robots.txt

Your robots.txt file has a Disallow rule that prevents Google from visiting this page. If this is an important page, this is a critical error. If it is a private page, it is intentional.

Fix: If the page should be indexed, remove the Disallow rule from robots.txt and request indexing. If it should be private, leave it — but also add noindex in case Google somehow accesses it.

📌 REAL EXAMPLE

An A2IT student ran a GSC Coverage report and found 47 pages showing "Crawled but not indexed." After investigation, all 47 were blog posts under 200 words — quick announcements with no real content. After rewriting each post with 600+ words of practical content, 41 of the 47 were indexed within 3 weeks. Lesson: thin content is the number one reason for "Crawled but not indexed."

3. Duplicate Content and How Canonicals Solve It

Duplicate content is one of the most widespread technical SEO problems — and most website owners do not even know they have it. Google does not penalise duplicate content directly, but it gets confused about which version to rank — and often ranks neither version well.

How duplicate content happens — practical examples

Type	URL 1 (original)	URL 2 (duplicate)	How common?
HTTP vs HTTPS	https://a2itsoft.com	http://a2itsoft.com	Very common
WWW vs non-WWW	https://www.a2itsoft.com	https://a2itsoft.com	Very common
Trailing slash	https://a2itsoft.com/courses	https://a2itsoft.com/courses/	Common
URL parameters	https://a2itsoft.com/courses	https://a2itsoft.com/courses?sort=price	Very common
Printer-friendly page	https://a2itsoft.com/blog/post	https://a2itsoft.com/print/blog/post	Less common
Session ID in URL	https://a2itsoft.com/page	https://a2itsoft.com/page?sid=abc123	Common on older sites
Uppercase vs lowercase URL	https://a2itsoft.com/courses	https://a2itsoft.com/Courses	Common on Windows servers

What is a canonical tag?

A canonical tag is an HTML tag you add to the <head> section of a page. It tells Google: "This is the original, master version of this content. Please index THIS URL and ignore the duplicates."

Google then takes all the ranking signals (links, authority, content quality) from the duplicate pages and combines them into the canonical URL. This makes your original page rank stronger — instead of splitting signals across duplicates.

Canonical tag — code examples for every situation

Example 1 — Self-referencing canonical (add to every page)

<!-- Add this to EVERY page — even if no duplicates exist --><!-- It prevents future duplicate issues proactively --><head> <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.a2itsoft.com/digital-marketing-internship-course" />
</head>

Example 2 — URL with parameters pointing to clean URL

<!-- On the parameterised page: --><!-- URL: https://www.a2itsoft.com/courses?sort=price&category=seo --><head> <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.a2itsoft.com/courses" />
</head><!-- This tells Google: the clean /courses URL is the original --><!-- Index that one, ignore all the filtered versions -->

Example 3 — HTTP version pointing to HTTPS version

<!-- On the HTTP version of any page --><!-- URL: http://www.a2itsoft.com/internship --><head> <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.a2itsoft.com/internship" />
</head><!-- ALSO set up a 301 redirect from HTTP to HTTPS --><!-- Use BOTH canonical tags AND 301 redirects for maximum protection -->

Example 4 — Paginated pages pointing to first page

<!-- On page 2, 3, 4... of your blog listing --><!-- URL: https://www.a2itsoft.com/blog?page=3 --><head> <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.a2itsoft.com/blog" />
</head>

Canonical tag rules — never break these

Always use absolute URLs — use https://www.a2itsoft.com/page, never just /page.
Canonical must be indexable — never point canonical to a noindex or 404 page.
No canonical chains — Page A canonical → Page B canonical → Page C. Always point directly to the final URL.
Canonical and 301 redirect together — for HTTP/HTTPS and www/non-www, use both for maximum effect.
Only one canonical per page — if there are two canonical tags on one page, Google ignores both.

⭐ PRO TIP

In WordPress, install Rank Math or Yoast SEO — both automatically add self-referencing canonical tags to every page. For custom PHP or Node.js websites, you must add them manually in your page template's <head> section. Check your site right now using Screaming Frog → Canonicals tab.

How to audit canonical tags using Screaming Frog

Open Screaming Frog and crawl your website.
Click the Canonicals tab at the top.
Look for pages where Canonical Tag column is empty — these pages have no canonical set.
Look for pages where the canonical URL is different from the page URL — check if this is intentional.
Click Reports → Canonicals to export a full list for review.
Check for canonical chains — where canonical A points to B which points to C.

4. Hreflang Tags for Multilingual Websites

If your website serves content in more than one language — for example English and Hindi — or targets users in different countries, you need hreflang tags. Without them, Google might show the wrong language version to the wrong users — hurting both rankings and user experience.

📖 DEF

Hreflang is an HTML attribute that tells Google: "This page has alternate versions for different languages or regions. Here is which version to show to which users." It solves the duplicate content problem for multilingual websites.

When do you need hreflang tags?

Your website has the same content in multiple languages — e.g. English and Hindi versions of your courses page.
Your website targets different countries with region-specific content — e.g. English for India (en-IN) and English for the UK (en-GB).
You have translated pages but Google keeps showing the English version to Hindi users.
You have separate domains or subdomains for different languages — e.g. a2itsoft.com and hi.a2itsoft.com.

💡 NOTE

If your website is only in English and only targets India — you do NOT need hreflang tags. Skip this section and come back when you add a second language. Most Indian IT training websites only need hreflang if they add Hindi, Punjabi, or region-specific pages.

Hreflang tag — how it works with code examples

Example 1 — Two language versions of the same page

<!-- On the ENGLISH version of your courses page --><!-- URL: https://www.a2itsoft.com/courses --><head> <!-- Tell Google: this English page targets all English speakers --> <link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://www.a2itsoft.com/courses" /> <!-- Tell Google: there is also a Hindi version --> <link rel="alternate" hreflang="hi" href="https://www.a2itsoft.com/hi/courses" /> <!-- x-default = fallback for users whose language has no specific version --> <link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://www.a2itsoft.com/courses" />
</head>

<!-- On the HINDI version of your courses page --><!-- URL: https://www.a2itsoft.com/hi/courses --><!-- Add the SAME set of hreflang tags on this page too --><head> <link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://www.a2itsoft.com/courses" /> <link rel="alternate" hreflang="hi" href="https://www.a2itsoft.com/hi/courses" /> <link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://www.a2itsoft.com/courses" />
</head>

Example 2 — Same language, different countries (India vs UK)

<!-- English for India (en-IN) --><link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-IN" href="https://www.a2itsoft.com/courses" /><!-- English for United Kingdom (en-GB) --><link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-GB" href="https://www.a2itsoft.com/uk/courses" /><!-- x-default fallback for all other countries --><link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://www.a2itsoft.com/courses" />

Hreflang language codes — common ones for India

Language	hreflang code	Example
English (global)	en	hreflang="en"
English (India)	en-IN	hreflang="en-IN"
English (UK)	en-GB	hreflang="en-GB"
English (US)	en-US	hreflang="en-US"
Hindi	hi	hreflang="hi"
Punjabi	pa	hreflang="pa"
Default fallback	x-default	hreflang="x-default"

Hreflang rules — common mistakes to avoid

Hreflang must be on BOTH pages — if English page points to Hindi page, Hindi page must also point back to English page. This is called a "return tag." Without it, Google ignores the hreflang.
Always include x-default — this is the fallback version Google shows when no specific language match exists for a user.
Use exact language codes — en-IN not en_IN (use hyphen, not underscore).
All URLs must be absolute — use full URLs with https://www.
The canonical and hreflang must agree — if a page has a canonical pointing elsewhere, hreflang on that page will be ignored.

⚠ COMMON MISTAKE

The most common hreflang mistake is adding it to only ONE page (the English version) and forgetting to add it to the alternate version (Hindi page). Without the return tag on the Hindi page, Google ignores your hreflang setup completely.

How to verify hreflang is working

Open Google Search Console → Indexing → International Targeting.
Check the Language tab — Google will show any hreflang errors it found.
Use the free tool hreflang.tools or Merkle's Hreflang Checker — paste your URL and it checks all hreflang tags and return tags automatically.
In Screaming Frog — go to Hreflang tab after crawling your site to see all hreflang tags and any errors.

📈

Want to master technical SEO practically? Digital Marketing Internship — A2IT InternEdge Mohali Learn indexing, canonicals, GSC coverage errors & more with live projects

→

Indexing Checklist — Section Summary

Add noindex to login, thank-you, admin, and private pages — never to course or blog pages
Never block a page in robots.txt AND add noindex — Google cannot read noindex if it cannot crawl the page
Check GSC Coverage / Pages report monthly — fix Crawled but not indexed with better content
Add canonical tags to every page — self-referencing canonicals prevent future duplicate issues
For parameterised URLs — point canonical to the clean version (without ?sort= or ?filter=)
Use 301 redirects AND canonical tags together for HTTP/HTTPS and www/non-www duplicates
If multilingual — add hreflang with return tags on both language versions of every page
Always include x-default hreflang as fallback for unmatched language users

Frequently Asked Questions — Indexing in Technical SEO

Indexing is when Google stores a copy of your page in its search database after crawling and rendering it. Only indexed pages can appear in Google search results. If a page is not indexed, it is completely invisible in Google — no matter how good your content is. You can check which pages are indexed using Google Search Console's Coverage or Pages report.

noindex tells Google not to include a specific page in its search index — the page will never appear in search results. nofollow tells Google not to follow links on a page or a specific link and not to pass ranking credit through it. noindex affects the page itself. nofollow affects the links on the page. You can use them independently or together depending on your need.

Use noindex on pages that should not appear in Google search results. Common examples include: thank-you pages after form submissions, login and registration pages, admin dashboards, staging or development versions of your site, paginated pages beyond page 3 or 4, filtered search result pages like /courses?sort=price, and duplicate content pages like printer-friendly versions.

Crawled but not indexed means Google successfully visited and rendered your page but decided not to add it to the search index. The most common reason is thin content — not enough unique and useful text on the page. Other reasons include: content too similar to other pages on your site (duplicate content), very slow page loading, or poor page quality signals. Fix it by adding at least 500 to 800 words of unique helpful content, improving internal linking to the page, and using the URL Inspection tool to request re-indexing after improvements.

Coverage errors in Google Search Console are reports showing which pages Google could not crawl, could not index, or chose not to index — and the exact reason why. The most important errors to fix are: Submitted URL not found (404), Server error (5xx), Redirect error, and Crawled but not indexed. Errors like Excluded by noindex tag and Alternate page with proper canonical tag are usually intentional and not problems.

Duplicate content is when the same or very similar content appears on more than one URL. Google gets confused about which version to rank and may rank none of them well — splitting the ranking signals between duplicate URLs. Common causes include HTTP vs HTTPS versions, www vs non-www, trailing slashes, URL parameters like sort and filter, and printer-friendly page versions. The fix is to use canonical tags pointing to the original URL and 301 redirects to consolidate all versions.

A canonical tag is an HTML link element placed in the head section of your page. It tells Google which URL is the original master version. Add it like this: <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.yoursite.com/page" /> inside your <head> section. Use the full absolute URL with https://www. Always add a self-referencing canonical to every page — even if no duplicate exists. In WordPress, Yoast SEO and Rank Math add canonical tags automatically.

Hreflang tags tell Google that you have multiple versions of a page for different languages or regions — for example English for India and Hindi for India. Without hreflang, Google might show the wrong language version to users. You need hreflang tags if your website serves content in more than one language or targets users in different countries with different versions of the same page. If your website is only in English and only targets India, you do not need hreflang tags.

A2IT InternEdge in Phase 8, Mohali offers a Digital Marketing and SEO Internship Course where you learn technical SEO indexing, noindex tags, canonical tags, Google Search Console coverage errors, hreflang, and more — with live projects and placement support. Visit a2itsoft.com/digital-marketing-internship-course to book a free demo class.

▶ Coming Next — Part 5

Core Web Vitals — Speed, Stability & Google Rankings

Now that your pages are properly indexed, the next step is making sure they are fast enough to rank well. In Part 5 we cover:

LCP, INP, and CLS — what they mean and how to measure them
How Core Web Vitals directly impact Google rankings
Tools to check: PageSpeed Insights, CrUX, Search Console
Quick wins to improve your Core Web Vitals score
Real examples of speed improvements and ranking gains

Read Part 5 →