Block Pages from Google Indexing (Robots.txt & Meta Tags)

How to hide private or unwanted pages from Google search and sitemap.

Posted by@Sujal Vanjare
Published on @
Updated on @

Some pages on your site are not meant to appear on Google or in public search engines. These may include draft pages, client-only pages, internal notes, private documents, or test content.

To control this behavior, your website setup supports automatic SEO features like robots.txt, meta noindex, and sitemap rules.

Why Block Indexing

Blocking indexing prevents:

  • Google from showing the page in search results
  • Search engines from crawling or archiving the content
  • The page link from appearing in the sitemap
  • Unwanted or private content from becoming public

This keeps your site clean, secure, and professional.

How to Block a Page from Indexing

It is very simple.

Just open the page and add the following category to the Category property:

Plain Text
🚫 No Index

That's it.

Once added:

  • The page route will be added as disallowed in robots.txt
  • A meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow" tag will be added to the page
  • The page will NOT be included in the sitemap

This fully blocks crawlers and indexing.

What Happens After Applying “No Index”

FeatureBehavior
Appears in sitemap.xml❌ No
Visible to users on your site✔ Yes
Indexed by Google❌ No
Crawled by robots/search engines❌ No
Works normally with routing✔ Yes

Your visitors can still access the page normally using the route. Only search engines are blocked.

Use Cases

You should mark a page as No Index when:

  • It is not ready for public visibility
  • You are using the page as a draft
  • You have personal or internal content
  • You are building a members-only area
  • The content is duplicated and should not affect SEO rankings
  • You want a landing page available only through a direct link

Examples:

Plain Text
/draft
/client-notes
/internal-roadmap

Important Notes

  • A No Index page will still load normally for users
  • Google may take time to remove already indexed pages, so if it appears in search, wait or request removal in Google Search Console
  • If you later remove 🚫 No Index, indexing will resume normally

Summary

Blocking a page from indexing is easy and takes only one step:

Add the 🚫 No Index category to that page.

Your site will automatically update:

  • robots.txt
  • meta tag controls
  • sitemap entries

No manual editing needed.