: "X-Robots-Tag: noindex" on an HTTP 301 response I understand that a resource with X-Robots-Tag: noindex forces some search engines, including Google, not to index the resource further. I also understand
I understand that a resource with X-Robots-Tag: noindex forces some search engines, including Google,
not to index the resource further. I also understand that an HTTP 301 response causes search engines to use the redirected URL instead of the original URL to refer to the resource.
But what happens if both X-Robots-Tag: noindex and status code 301 occur on the same response? It's likely that the original URL will no longer be indexed, but will that cause the redirected URL to no longer be indexed too? This possibility is not mentioned in the X-Robots-Tag specification.
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The X-Robots-Tag: noindex have a means. I 301 redirected a lot of pages and after several months the original URL still appears in index with the content of destination page. Now I added X-Robots-Tag: noindex tag and I wait to see the results.
It shouldn't have any effect to have a X-Robots-Tag: noindex header on a 301 redirect URL.
Search engines don't index 301 redirect URLs anyway. So that tag is only telling them what they already know.
It shouldn't cause the target of the redirect not to be indexed. If it did, that could allow an attacker to redirect to a competitor with that header and get the competition de-indexed.
A web page can return a 301 header response code which simply tells a bot not to pay attention to anything else on this page but look at the redirect path and pass on traffic through this redirect.
Subsequently, using a noindex tag on a page that you are redirecting is pointless as it won't get seen anyway.
When permanently redirecting (301), what matters is only what response the redirect destination URL is returning.
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