What is De-Indexing?
De-indexing is when a webpage (or an entire website) is removed from a search engine’s index, meaning it won’t appear in search results anymore.
This can happen for different reasons. Sometimes, website owners intentionally de-index pages they don’t want to rank—like duplicate content, internal search result pages, or thank-you pages after a form submission. Other times, search engines make that decision themselves, often as a punishment for breaking their rules.
If you’ve ever woken up to find that your website traffic has mysteriously dropped to zero, de-indexing might be the culprit. It’s every SEO’s worst nightmare, but it’s not always a bad thing. In fact, when used strategically, de-indexing can help your SEO efforts by keeping Google focused on your most important content.
Why De-Indexing Matters
1. Avoiding Duplicate Content Issues
Google doesn’t like duplicate content because it creates confusion. If multiple pages on your site have the same or very similar content, Google doesn’t know which one to rank. This can lead to keyword cannibalization, where multiple pages compete against each other, dragging down your rankings.
De-indexing lets you tell Google, “Hey, don’t worry about these pages. Just focus on the important ones.” This is especially useful for SaaS companies that might have multiple similar landing pages for different customer segments.
2. Keeping Your Site Clean and Focused
Not every page on your site needs to be indexed. Pages like internal search results, old promotional pages, or private content for logged-in users don’t add value in search results. By de-indexing these, you help Google prioritize your most valuable pages.
3. Protecting Sensitive Information
Sometimes, de-indexing is necessary for privacy reasons. Maybe you accidentally published internal company documents, or an old blog post includes outdated pricing information that keeps confusing potential customers. De-indexing can help prevent these pages from showing up in search results.
How to Tell if Your Pages Are De-Indexed (or Indexed)
Before you start de-indexing anything, you need to know which pages are indexed or de-indexed in the first place. Here’s how to check:
1. Use Google Search Console
Google Search Console is your best friend when it comes to indexing. Head over to the "Indexing" report to see which pages are indexed, which are excluded, and if there are any indexing errors.
If you suspect a page has been de-indexed, use the URL Inspection Tool.
It’ll tell you whether a page is indexed and if not, why.
2. Use a “site:” Search on Google
Another quick way to check if a page is indexed is to go to Google and type:
site:yourwebsite.com/page-url
If the page shows up, it’s indexed. If not, it’s either de-indexed or hasn’t been crawled yet.
3. Check Your XML Sitemap
Your XML sitemap tells Google which pages to index. If a page is missing from your sitemap, it might not be indexed at all. Make sure your most important pages are included and that your sitemap is submitted to Google Search Console.
Best Practices for De-Indexing Pages
Now that we know when and why de-indexing is important, let’s go over how to do it properly.
But before then, if you’re optimizing your site for search engines, de-indexing is just one part of the equation. A strong SaaS SEO strategy involves balancing indexed and non-indexed content to maximize visibility and conversions. Learn more in our SEO for SaaS guide.
1. Use the Noindex Meta Tag
The easiest way to de-index a page is to add the following meta tag in the <head> section of the page’s HTML:
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, follow">
This tells search engines, “Don’t index this page, but still follow the links on it.”
2. Use the X-Robots-Tag for PDFs and Other Files
If you need to de-index PDFs, images, or other non-HTML files, use the X-Robots-Tag in your server headers:
X-Robots-Tag: noindex
3. Block Pages in robots.txt (With Caution)
Adding pages to your robots.txt file can prevent search engines from crawling them, but it won’t necessarily de-index them if they’ve already been indexed.
To block a specific page:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /private-page/
However, never use robots.txt to block pages you want to de-index. If search engines can’t crawl the page, they might not see your noindex tag, and the page could remain indexed indefinitely.
4. Use Google Search Console’s Removals Tool
If you need to quickly remove a page from Google’s index, use the Removals Tool in Google Search Console.
This provides temporary removal for up to six months, but you’ll still need to add a noindex tag or delete the page for a permanent solution.
FAQs About De-Indexing
1. What’s the difference between de-indexing and deleting a page?
De-indexing removes a page from search engine results, but the page still exists on your site. People can still access it if they have the direct URL, and search engines may continue crawling it if it's linked from other pages.
Deleting a page, on the other hand, removes it from your site entirely. If the page was ranking well or had backlinks pointing to it, deleting it without proper redirection (such as a 301 redirect) can result in broken links and lost SEO value.
2. Can de-indexed pages still get traffic?
Yes! De-indexing doesn’t make a page disappear entirely. Anyone with the direct URL can still access it, and it can still be linked to from other websites, emails, or internal pages.
However, the amount of traffic a de-indexed page gets usually drops significantly because it won’t be discoverable through search engines. If most of the page’s traffic came from organic search, expect a major decline once it’s de-indexed.
One exception: If your page gets a lot of referral traffic from external sources (social media, forums, newsletters), it might still receive visitors despite being removed from search results.
3. Will de-indexing a page improve my SEO?
It can, but only if used strategically. Removing low-value pages can help Google focus on your important content, but de-indexing high-value pages by mistake can hurt your rankings.
Also, while de-indexing can help clean up your site, the real key to ranking higher is a solid SEO strategy. If you're looking for expert help, check out our list of the best SaaS SEO agencies that specialize in optimizing SaaS businesses for search success."
4. Can a de-indexed page be re-indexed?
Yes! If you’ve de-indexed a page but later decide you want it back in search results, here’s how to re-index it:
- Remove the noindex tag from the page’s HTML.
- Ensure the page is included in your XML sitemap.
- Use Google Search Console’s “Request Indexing” tool to speed up the process.
- Check robots.txt to make sure it’s not blocking the page.
- Internally link to the page from other indexed pages. This helps Google discover it faster.
Even after you take these steps, re-indexing isn’t immediate. Google still needs to recrawl the page, which can take anywhere from a few days to several weeks depending on your site’s crawl frequency.
Pro tip: If it’s an important page, try building fresh backlinks to it or updating the content significantly—Google tends to crawl and index frequently updated pages faster.
5. How long does de-indexing take?
De-indexing is not instant—Google needs to recrawl and process the change before it removes the page from search results. The time frame depends on several factors:
- If you use a noindex tag, de-indexing usually happens within a few days to a couple of weeks, depending on how often Google crawls your site.
- If you request removal via Google Search Console, the page may disappear in a few hours to days, but this is a temporary solution (6 months max) unless you also add a noindex tag or delete the page.
- If you delete the page and return a 404 or 410, Google may take longer to de-index it, as it will continue trying to crawl the page for some time before giving up.
