When Googlebot is allowed to fetch a page and sees a noindex directive, the directive is intended to keep that page out of Google's index.

Sources

• Block Search Indexing with noindex | Google Search Central Documentation

  Google Search Central (developers.google.com) · primary source · retrieved 2026-08-18

  “used to prevent indexing content by search engines that support the noindex rule” — Intro paragraph, noindex definition

  “must not be blocked by a robots.txt file” — Important note on effectiveness

• How to Fix the Excluded by 'Noindex' Issue

  Sitechecker · retrieved 2026-08-18

  “This directive prevents these pages from being indexed by Google and appearing in search results.” — Explanation of 'Excluded by noindex tag' status

• Why Google Indexes Blocked Web Pages

  Search Engine Journal · retrieved 2026-08-18

  “read the noindex directive, ensuring the page won’t appear in the search index” — lines 173-178