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.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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 -
Internal blog with history and some SEO value versus new external blogs with specialized content?
We operate a blog inside a folder on our site and considering the launch of 4 highly focused blogs with specialized content which are now categories on the internal blog. Wondering if there is more value in using the external new blogs or just keep growing the internal blog content. Does fact that the internal blog is buried amongst millions of pages have any impact if we want the content indexed and value given to the links from the blog content to our main site pages.
Content Development | | CondoRich0 -
Blog.site.com vs site.com/blog
Which is better for SEO: blog.site.com or site.com/blog. In other words, is it better to have the blog running in a subdomain or as a director within the main site? Right now we are running as a subdomain, but want to be sure Google isn't considering that a separate site. The blog shows up separately on Google Analytics, which makes me think site.com/blog is better if for no other reason, it would give our domain greater traffic. Not sure if this matters, but some site info: our site is a sharing economy tool for renting your stuff we are running the blog on Wordpress blog traffic is about 5% of total traffic
Content Development | | TapGoods0 -
Shopify Blog vs Wordpress
We are moving our Ecommerce site to Shopify. Currently we run our blog on Wordpress and I'm wondering if anyone has an opinion on using the Shopify blog vs Wordpress?
Content Development | | Glaze0 -
Images & Duplicate Content Issues
Here's a scenario for you: The site is running WordPress and the images are uploaded to the media section. You can set image attributes there such as the Description & Alt Tag. Let's say you'd like to reuse the same image in two different blog posts. The image keeps the same Description & Alt Tag associated with it in the media section. Would this be considered duplicate content? What would be the best practice in this case to reuse the same image in multiple posts?
Content Development | | VicMarcusNWI0 -
How many articles are ok to publish a day on my website blog?
I have a blog on my website which is a part of the website. Currently I publish one article a day. Is it ok if I increase it to 2 a day? Is there any limitation in order not look negative to Google
Content Development | | AlirezaHamidian0 -
Blog Sub-Domaine on Other Server, Is This Possible???
My eCommerce cart is BigCommerce. It is not possible to use my domain name to add a blog on there server. I would like to create a blog on a sub-domain, something like: http://www.furnacefilterscanada.com/blog/ Is it possible to host this sub-domain on another server? Host this sub-domiane to BlueHost for example and keep my domaine to BigCommerce. If YES, I would like to buy a Word Press theme and start a blog on this sub-domain: http://www.furnacefilterscanada.com/blog/ Thank you, BIgBlaze
Content Development | | BigBlaze2050 -
Can you use creative commons non-commercial images on a company blog?
Does anyone know if it is okay to use creative commons images on your company blog if they are under the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license. Technically you are using it on a commercial site, but you are not directly making money from the image or selling it.
Content Development | | ProjectLabs0