Fixing the "Submitted URL Marked noindex" Error: A Complete Guide
When you check your website performance through search engines, you might unexpectedly encounter the notification which says “submitted URL marked noindex”. Your website’s visibility, together with traffic numbers, gets adversely affected by this common mistake. The following guide points out step-by-step solutions to resolve “submitted URL marked noindex” problems which impact your site performance.
Search results absence of your pages indicates the submitted URL marked noindex error. These exact steps will guide you to recover your pages from disappearing in search results after following the best SEO practices.
✧ What Exactly Is the 'noindex' Error?
When Google detects a page-submitted URL marked noindex, it receives directions to avoid placing it in search engine results. Your page is located in Google Search Console even though Google does not index it due to these instructions.
Your website will experience this issue through three methods:
- HTML meta tags in your page’s code
- HTTP response headers sent by your server
- X-Robots-Tag headers
Before fixing the issue, you need to identify exactly where and how the noindex directive is implemented on your website.
“Technical SEO problems require systematic solutions – follow these steps to get your pages indexed properly.”
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✧ Follow these steps to get your pages indexed properly:
Are you facing trouble getting your website Not Indexed by Google? Here are the simple steps that will help to make sure all your pages are indexed and easily discoverable by users.
➜ Step 1: Identify Affected Pages in Google Search Console
- Log into your Google Search Console account
- Navigate to the “Index” section in the left sidebar
- Click on “Coverage” to see a report of indexed and non-indexed pages
- Look for the specific error “Submitted URL marked ‘noindex'”
- Click on this error to see a list of all affected URLs
- Export this list or note down the affected pages
With this view you receive a clear listing of all web pages that Need to Fix.
“Discovering which pages have the problem is half the battle – now, we need to know what is causing the noindex directive.”
➜ Step 2: Determine the Type of 'noindex' Directive
For each affected URL, determine which type of noindex directive is present:
A. Check for Meta Robots Tags:
- Visit the affected page
- Click with your right mouse button to open the Inspect view and select the View Page Source option. Use Ctrl+U to open the source
- Open Search Box using Ctrl+F , and type “noindex“
- See for Meta tags like: <meta name=”robots” content=”noindex”> or <meta name=”googlebot” content=”noindex”>
B. Check for HTTP Headers:
- Use an online header checker tool (like REDbot.org or WebSniffer.cc)
- Enter the URL of your affected page
- Look for either “X-Robots-Tag: noindex” or “X-Robots-Tag: none” in the response headers
C. Check robots.txt Directives:
- Go to yourdomain.com/robots.txt
- Check if Disallow rules block access to your web pages now
Make note of which type of noindex directive is affecting each URL so you can apply the appropriate fix.
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➜ Step 3: Fix Meta Robots Tag Issues
If you found <meta name=”robots” content=”noindex”> tags:
1. If using WordPress:
- Log into your WordPress admin
- Go to Settings → Reading
- Uncheck the checkbox to Disallow search engines to index your website.
- Click “Save Changes“
2. Keep the following steps when you use an SEO plugin such as Yoast, Rank Math, or All-in-One SEO.
- Go to the SEO settings for the affected page
- Look for options like “Allow search engines to show this page in search results”
- Ensure this option is enabled
- Save your changes
3. If editing HTML directly:
- Access all your website data through FTP service / C-panel or web hosting tools.
- Locate the affected page’s HTML file
- Change the robots meta tag from noindex to index follow <meta name=”robots” content=”index, follow”>
- Save the file and upload it back to the server
PRO TIP #1:
➜ Step 4: Fix HTTP Header Issues
If the noindex directive is in your HTTP headers:
1. For Apache servers (.htaccess method):
- Open your website’s Primary ( root) directory via FTP or hosting control panel
- Open or create the .htaccess file
- Find instructions written as: Header set X-Robots-Tag “noindex”
- Remove these lines or change them to Header set X-Robots-Tag “index, follow”
- Save the file
2. For Nginx servers:
- Access your server configuration
- Search for directives like: add_header X-Robots-Tag “noindex”;
- Remove these lines or change to add_header X-Robots-Tag “index, follow”;
- Save the configuration and restart Nginx
3. If using Cloudflare or similar CDN:
- Check your CDN settings for custom headers
- Remove any X-Robots-Tag headers with noindex values
➜ Step 5: Fix robots.txt Issues
While robots.txt can’t contain noindex directives, it can prevent crawling, which prevents indexing:
- Access your robots.txt file via FTP or your hosting control panel
- Look for lines like Disallow: /page-path/ that match your affected URLs
- Either remove these lines or change them to Allow: /page-path/
- Save the file
“After fixing noindex directives, you need to tell search engines to recrawl your pages – don’t wait for them to discover the changes on their own.”
➜ Step 6: Verify and Request Reindexing
After implementing fixes:
1. Test individual URLs:
- Go to Google Search Console → URL Inspection tool
- Enter the URL you fixed
- Click “Test Live URL” to see if the noindex issue is resolved
- If the test shows “URL can be indexed,” proceed to the next step
2. Request reindexing:
- While still in the URL Inspection result screen
- Click “Request Indexing“
- This puts your page in Google’s priority crawling queue
3. For multiple pages:
- Create or update your XML sitemap
- Submit it in Google Search Console under “Sitemaps”
PRO TIP #2:
➜ Step 7: Monitor Results
1. Set up tracking:
- Create a spreadsheet with affected URLs
- Record the day you put the fixes into place
- Track when each page gets reindexed
2. Continue monitoring:
- Check Google Search Console coverage reports weekly
- URL Inspection tool detects performance issues in single important URLs
- Monitor your organic search traffic for improvements
3. If pages aren't indexed after 2-4 weeks:
- Verify your fixes were implemented correctly
- Check for other potential indexing issues
- Consider if the content is valuable enough for indexing (thin or duplicate content might still not be indexed)
✧ Take Action Now to Get Your Search Visibility Back
Submitted URL with noindex instructions should not damage your website’s performance index. Understand the issue of the submitted URL marked noindex and solve it using these defined steps to grow your search visibility.
Your website loses chances for traffic and sales every day your essential pages stay unindexed. Using this process enables you to solve submitted URL marked noindex problems effectively and make your content visible to potential customers once more.
Your website loses chances for traffic and sales every day your essential pages stay unindexed. Using this process enables you to solve submitted URL marked noindex problems effectively and make your content visible to potential customers once more.
✧ Need expert help? Contact our SEO team today for assistance in resolving technical issues
