SEO Nightmare: When NoIndex Goes Bad
Columnist Eric Enge discusses common issues that arise from improper implementation of the noindex tag. In the right time and place, the noindex tag can be a wonderful thing. Unfortunately, there are times where it can cause problems. Over the past few years, I have had the chance to work on a number of sites with page counts running into the hundreds of millions. The reasons why people allow their sites to grow to such sizes are many and varied. Here are some of the more common reasons why this ends up happening: The publisher is trying to maximize their ability to rank on long-tail terms. The publisher believes that offering a massive level of refinements is good for the user experience. The site uses an unconstrained tagging system that allows any combination of tags (even clearly illogical combinations) to create unique new pages. The site implementation has bugs in it that result in pages being unintentionally created. When sites grow this large, it ofte...