I index, therefore I am – show search engines what you want
Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2025 10:44 am
The robots meta tag tells search engines how to index your page, and can also provide information about how to access links (follow/nofollow). For some marketers, it's too technical. For developers, it's often more of a marketing tool .
This can lead to absurd situations – for example, when a client asks us to audit a website that has been running for several years. However, the website had the noindex attribute – which prevented search engines from including it in their search results, and therefore it was not searchable!
Test how you're doing . Enter " site:yourweb.cz" in the search box. Find out if search engines are really indexing all of your pages.
How many pages about you will search engines find?
Index types and what they mean
Nofollow
The nofollow tag can be used on a page or a link as part of a link building strategy . This tag says: do not follow any links on this page .
Links are a crucial factor in evaluating the quality of a page in SEO. Internal links help search engines crawl web pages and connect relevant topics together. Quality internal linking will also help you rank your site better in search engines.
When to use nofollow?
For links in blog comments . If users can comment on your articles, you job seekers database don't want your competitors to spam your comments. It's better if your coder automatically sets all links in your blog as nofollow. This way, you can be sure that they can't damage your link profile.
For paid links . Paid links and links in PR articles can damage your online reputation.
Untrustworthy content . If you link from your site to someone else's and you are not sure about the quality of the content. You can safely link to other bloggers, or for example, customer references, without their PageRank affecting yours in any way. On the other hand, you can use the follow attribute to mark trustworthy sources that are thematically related.
For pages that are not for robots . Search engines cannot log in to a forum, fill out a form, or register. So there is no reason for robots to see this link. Using the nofollow tag will only redirect the robot to pay more attention to other content pages.
This can lead to absurd situations – for example, when a client asks us to audit a website that has been running for several years. However, the website had the noindex attribute – which prevented search engines from including it in their search results, and therefore it was not searchable!
Test how you're doing . Enter " site:yourweb.cz" in the search box. Find out if search engines are really indexing all of your pages.
How many pages about you will search engines find?
Index types and what they mean
Nofollow
The nofollow tag can be used on a page or a link as part of a link building strategy . This tag says: do not follow any links on this page .
Links are a crucial factor in evaluating the quality of a page in SEO. Internal links help search engines crawl web pages and connect relevant topics together. Quality internal linking will also help you rank your site better in search engines.
When to use nofollow?
For links in blog comments . If users can comment on your articles, you job seekers database don't want your competitors to spam your comments. It's better if your coder automatically sets all links in your blog as nofollow. This way, you can be sure that they can't damage your link profile.
For paid links . Paid links and links in PR articles can damage your online reputation.
Untrustworthy content . If you link from your site to someone else's and you are not sure about the quality of the content. You can safely link to other bloggers, or for example, customer references, without their PageRank affecting yours in any way. On the other hand, you can use the follow attribute to mark trustworthy sources that are thematically related.
For pages that are not for robots . Search engines cannot log in to a forum, fill out a form, or register. So there is no reason for robots to see this link. Using the nofollow tag will only redirect the robot to pay more attention to other content pages.