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    4. No Index PDFs

    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.

    No Index PDFs

    Technical SEO
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    • MonicaOConnor
      MonicaOConnor last edited by

      Our products have about 4 PDFs a piece, which really inflates our indexed pages. I was wondering if I could add REL=No Index to the PDF's URL? All of the files are on a file server, so they are embedded with links on our product pages. I know I could add a No Follow attribute, but I was wondering if any one knew if the No Index would work the same or if that is even possible. Thanks!

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • MonicaOConnor
        MonicaOConnor @Alick300 last edited by

        The files aren't duplicate. I am familiar with using the XRobots tag. I was really just curious if my theory would work.

        Thanks for all your input.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • Alick300
          Alick300 last edited by

          Hi Monica,

          I presume you already check all the options before posting this question. I have concluded this by seeing your others posts/reply in this community. 🙂

          Now here is my answer

          To prevent your PDF file (or any non HTML file) from being listed in search results, the only way is to use the HTTP X-Robots-Tag response header, e.g.:

          X-Robots-Tag: noindex

          robots.txt does not prevent your page from being listed in search results.

          What it does is stop the bot from crawling your page, but if a third party links to your PDF file from their website, your page will still be listed.

          If you stop the bot from crawling your page using robots.txt, it will not have the chance to see the X-Robots-Tag: noindex response tag. Therefore, never ever ever disallow a page in robots.txt if you employ the X-Robots-Tag header.

          I hope it helps but not very sure. 🙂

          Thanks

          MonicaOConnor 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
          • OlegKorneitchouk
            OlegKorneitchouk last edited by

            1. If you want to deindex all PDF files, I recommend using the x-robots-tag in .htaccess - https://yoast.com/x-robots-tag-play/

            2. If the PDFs are pdf versions of existing pages, I would set canonicals to point to the URL you do want indexed (#2 on http://moz.com/blog/htaccess-file-snippets-for-seos )

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • DirkC
              DirkC last edited by

              If the pdf's are in a separate folder on your site - you could mark that folder as noindex in robots.txt

              As far as I know, it's not possible to add a noindex to a link.

              rgds

              Dirk

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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