A link leads to a page that asks to stay out of search
In the reportInternal links point to a noindex page
internal_link_to_noindex · Review item
This appears when links on your pages lead to a page that loads normally but carries a noindex directive. Linking to a page you keep out of search can be intended, for example an order form, so it is kept for review. Remove the noindex if the page should be found, or point the links elsewhere.
Severity: Low. Review it when convenient; many linked pages are rightly kept out of search.
Why it matters
A noindex, in a meta tag or an HTTP header, makes Google drop the page from its results once it crawls it. Links that lead there send visitors to a page that search cannot show, which is worth confirming.
What to do
- Look at the finding: it shows the noindex found on the target and up to ten links to it.
- If the page should be found in search, remove its noindex.
- If it should stay out, keep it, or point the links to a page that can be indexed.
When to leave it as it is: if the target is meant to stay out of search, such as an account, basket or thank-you page, you can leave both the links and the noindex.
What we read
We read the <a href> links to your own host in the HTML of each crawled page, as for the other link checks, and follow each target's redirects. A target is reported when it answered 200 with HTML and carries noindex or none in a <meta name="robots"> or <meta name="googlebot"> tag, or in an X-Robots-Tag header that applies to all crawlers or to Googlebot. In one X-Robots-Tag field such as bingbot: nofollow, noindex, both directives stay scoped to Bingbot; separate physical header fields are read independently.
Other checks take it instead when the target is your site's address, is listed in your sitemap, or when most checked pages carry noindex. Targets the audit did not fetch are noted as not covered.
Example & evidence
Illustrative example — one link and the page it leads to, not a live audit.
https://bakery.example/cakes/ contains:
<main><a href="/order-online/">Order online</a></main>and https://bakery.example/order-online/ answers 200 with:
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">The target is not in the sitemap, so it is reported with the meta tag and the link.
A possible correction, if the order page should be found in search: remove its noindex.
Confirm & check again
Check for yourself: open the linked page's source and search for noindex, and look for X-Robots-Tag in its response headers.
Check again: Full audit — run a new audit of the site. The old finding for this target closes only when it is not reported again, the check gives a usable result, and every page that linked to the target has complete evidence: it is read again as complete HTML that does not rely on scripts, with conclusive results for the current links on it that this check covers, and no longer leads to this noindex target, or it now answers directly with 200 and a file that is not HTML, or starts with a permanent redirect whose whole chain stays within your site. It may also close when another check takes over the same target, which does not by itself show the problem is fixed. Links pointed to another noindex page may produce a new finding, if that page meets this check's conditions.
Limits & sources
The check does not know whether the noindex is intended, and it does not see links or directives added by JavaScript, and it ignores directives addressed to other crawlers.
Confidence: High because the directive is read directly from the target page or its header.
Sources
- Google, Block Search indexing with noindex — describes noindex in a meta tag or an HTTP header, and that Google drops a page that carries it from its results. Checked 25 September 2026.
Editorial review: 29 September 2026