Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Should I Have No Index, No Follow On Blog Category & Tag Pages?
-
At some point in the past I read or was told that No Index, No Follow tags on category and tag pages were a good thing on a standard WordPress blog in order to prevent duplicate content issues.
Is this still true or was it ever true?
-
This is the challenge about replying to "fast" questions in a Q&A. How thorough of an answer should be provided. I agree with EGOL in that the category and tag pages could and perhaps even should ideally be built out, offer more content and be indexed. Many sites choose not to take this approach and simply keep these pages merely as indexes or organizers. IF you choose to do such, then I maintain my original advice to use the noindex, follow tag.
With respect to robots.txt, the best file is a blank one. Many sites use the robots.txt far too much. It should be avoided whenever there is another solution available. In this case, it would be a big mistake to use it.
-
In total agreement...not allowing the engines to spider/index your category and tag pages would be detrimental to your potential results. However, if you choose to do this, it can be done much easier in the robots.txt file.
-
Very much agreed... it really depends on how everything is structured.
-
If I kept my category pages out of the search indexes I would be walking away from hundreds of search engine visitors per minute.
Do analytics to see how much traffic is coming into these pages from search, who is linking to them, how much revenue they earn and also consider their future traffic potential.
Its not good to follow generalized advice blindly.
-
I agree with John.
You do NOT want to have "no index, no follow" tags on internal links. "noindex" is fine, but "nofollow" is an indication that you do not trust the link. It sends mixed signals to search engines and is not a good idea.
If your category and tag pages have no content and merely contain links to other internal pages, then "Noindex, follow" is the tag you want to use.
An alternative approach, as John mentioned, is to build out those category/tag pages with more content so they offer value to searchers.
-
There are a couple of different approaches to take. My personal fave is the "noindex,follow" on tag & category pages. Having said that, I've heard of some people who have great category rankings. That may depend on just how much duplication you have going on between the category/summary page and the actual blog post pages.
The Yoast SEO and All in One SEO plugs are great for WP by the way.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
New blog contributors
For context my website is a content resource portal. In SEO training I have been told that it is a good SEO move to have as many content contributors as possible. As a result we are pushing to recruit new content contributors so they can be listed as new contributors/authors on our site alongside their valuable content. Would this move be good for our SEO rankings and is there anything in particular to consider with this?
Content Development | | Chanice0 -
Is it possible to do guest blogging on moz blog?
Hi, I know it used to be possible but now i don't find any contact to submit an article to the blog. How does that work? Is that still possible to do it? And if yes, what are the conditions to be writer for Moz blog? Thanks. Stephanie
Content Development | | steph_ba0 -
Page Break
Hey guys, A client has asked us to install a page break function on their Wordpress site in the hope of increasing page count. It's a very common practice but have never used it as part of a strategy. Any thoughts, pros or cons?
Content Development | | wearehappymedia0 -
Find Blogs With High Domain Authority In Particular Niche
Is there a way to find blogs with a high domain authority that are in a specified niche? For example is their a tool that finds high domain authority blogs that focus on tech?
Content Development | | twitime0 -
Can We Publish Duplicate Content on Multi Regional Website / Blogs?
Today, I was reading Google's official article on Multi Regional website and use of duplicate content. Right now, We are working on 4 different blogs for following regions. And, We're writing unique content for each blog. But, I am thinking to use one content / subject for all 4 region blogs. USA: http://www.bannerbuzz.com/blog/ UK: http://www.bannerbuzz.co.uk/blog/ AUS: http://www.bannerbuzz.com.au/blog/ CA: http://www.bannerbuzz.ca/blog/ Let me give you very clear ideas on it. Recently, We have published one article on USA website. http://www.bannerbuzz.com/blog/choosing-the-right-banner-for-your-advertisement/ And, We want to publish this article / blog on UK, AUS & CA blog without making any changes. I have read following paragraph on Google's official guidelines and It's inspire me to make it happen. Which is best solution for it? Websites that provide content for different regions and in different languages sometimes create content that is the same or similar but available on different URLs. This is generally not a problem as long as the content is for different users in different countries. While we strongly recommend that you provide unique content for each different group of users, we understand that this may not always be possible. There is generally no need to "hide" the duplicates by disallowing crawling in a robots.txt file or by using a "noindex" robots meta tag. However, if you're providing the same content to the same users on different URLs (for instance, if both example.de/ and example.com/de/ show German language content for users in Germany), you should pick a preferred version and redirect (or use the rel=canonical link element) appropriately. In addition, you should follow the guidelines on rel-alternate-hreflang to make sure that the correct language or regional URL is served to searchers.
Content Development | | CommercePundit0 -
What is a Hub Page?
Can anybody explain what is a hub page? Do you have any example? In a other post, somebody suggest creating hub pages. This is the post: http://www.seomoz.org/q/online-store-with-4-products-available-in-50-sizes-need-tips-categories-products Thank you, BigBlaze
Content Development | | BigBlaze2050 -
Best place for a blog blog.mydomain.com or mydomain.com/blog
We have used blogs on a good number of client sites and always got good results from having them. However do you feel its best to have a blog as a subdomain or included in the site ie blog.mydomain.com or mydomain.com/blog
Content Development | | tempowebdesign0 -
Blog for SEO: embedded in the site or separate
Hello, For both ecommerce and sites that sell services, I've seen a lot of people recommending a blog for SEO. Should this blog be inside or separate from the main website for the most results? I can see how adding one to a site would create more unique content and an opportunity for link bait, but perhaps there is a reason to have a blog separate from the main site Thank you.
Content Development | | BobGW1
