01Which landing pages to index, and which to block
| Page | Index? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Core offer or audience page | Yes | People search for what it covers |
| Page built to rank for a topic | Yes | That is its purpose |
| Paid-ad campaign page | Usually no | Often thin out of context, and you pay for its traffic anyway |
| A/B test variants | No | Duplicates of the original |
| Thank-you or confirmation page | No | Useless to a searcher, and can leak gated content |
| Region or keyword variants with the same content | One yes, the rest canonical or no | Avoid competing duplicates |
02Why not index everything?
Indexing a page is not free. Thin pages that make sense only in the context of an ad give searchers a poor experience, and Google's guidance on helpful content asks whether content was made to help people or mainly to attract search visits. A site with many low-value pages can make it harder for its good pages to be found and trusted.
There is also a practical problem: near-duplicate landing pages can compete with each other. Google picks one as the canonical version and may not pick the one you want; its documentation on consolidating duplicate URLs explains how to signal your preference.
03How to noindex a page correctly
Google's documentation on blocking indexing describes two methods, and one common mistake.
- 1Meta tagAdd <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> to the page's head. Most builders have a "hide from search engines" setting that does this.
- 2HTTP headerSend X-Robots-Tag: noindex, useful for PDFs and files without an HTML head.
- 3Do not block it in robots.txtGoogle must crawl the page to see noindex. A robots.txt block can leave the URL indexed without a description if other sites link to it.
- 4Check it workedUse URL Inspection in Search Console to confirm Google sees the noindex.
05What about pages you want to rank later?
If a campaign page could become a useful search page, give it what a search page needs before indexing it: a title and heading matching the search, a full explanation of the offer and answers to common questions. Do landing pages rank on Google? covers what makes the difference, and how many landing pages should I have? helps you avoid creating near-duplicates in the first place.
If you are building a new site from scratch, SEO for a new website covers indexing basics such as sitemaps and Search Console setup.
Builders differ in how they expose these settings. Most have a per-page "hide from search engines" or "exclude from sitemap" switch; check both, because a page left out of the sitemap can still be indexed if other pages link to it, and a page in the sitemap with noindex sends Google mixed signals. Keep the sitemap to pages you want indexed.
What people who tried it say
Founders discussing landing page SEO on Indie Hackers often describe indexing problems they did not know they had, such as pages Google had never seen, rather than ranking problems, and recommend checking Search Console before rewriting content.
- Share your landing page and I'll suggest a strategy for SEOIndie Hackers
Reviews of founders' landing pages emphasize deciding which pages should rank and building those properly, rather than indexing every page and hoping.
Looking for more first-hand opinions? Search Reddit for “should landing pages be indexed”. We link the live threads rather than summarizing them, so you read them in full.
Our take
be deliberate rather than defaulting either way. Every indexed page should be one you would be proud to have a stranger land on from Google. If it only makes sense after clicking your ad, keep it out of the index.
Where this falls short
Search engines other than Google may treat these signals slightly differently, and Google can take weeks to drop a page after you add noindex. If a page contains sensitive information, password-protect it; noindex only keeps it out of search results.
Sources
- 1.Block Search indexing with noindex · Google Search Central
- 2.Robots.txt introduction and guide · Google Search Central
- 3.Consolidate duplicate URLs · Google Search Central
Researched and written by the Orlume team · Updated October 2026
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