The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. SEO and Digital Marketing Forum
    2. Categories
    3. SEO Tactics
    4. Intermediate & Advanced SEO
    5. How to Disallow Tag Pages With Robot.txt
    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.

    How to Disallow Tag Pages With Robot.txt

    Intermediate & Advanced SEO
    6 3 5.4k
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • monster99
      monster99 last edited by

      Hi i have a site which i'm dealing with that has tag pages for instant -

      http://www.domain.com/news/?tag=choice

      How can i exclude these tag pages (about 20+ being crawled and indexed by the search engines with robot.txt

      Also sometimes they're created dynamically so i want something which automatically excludes tage pages from being crawled and indexed.

      Any suggestions?

      Cheers,

      Mark

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • monster99
        monster99 @monster99 last edited by

        Hi Nakul, its Drupal

        Mark

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • NakulGoyal
          NakulGoyal @monster99 last edited by

          What CMS is it Mark ?

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • monster99
            monster99 @DeanAndrews last edited by

            Thanks, is there a way to test it out before actually implementing it with the site.

            The site is non-wordpress aswell.

            Cheers,

            Mark

            NakulGoyal monster99 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • NakulGoyal
              NakulGoyal last edited by

              I agree. I would suggest adding the noindex on the pages and letting the bots crawl them. Blocking them would prevent future crawl of these pages, but I am guessing you would also want to remove the existing pages.

              Therefore add the noindex first, wait a few days and then add the disallow (Although technically if they are noindex, you don't really need the disallow).

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

                Hi Mark

                If your using Wordpress then I would recommend SEO Yoast to resolve the tag issue. If not then I suggest you amend the robots.txt file to resolve.

                Here is an example:

                Disallow: /?tag=
                Disallow: /
                ?subcats=
                Disallow: /*?features_hash=

                NOTE:

                Be very careful when blocking search engines. Test and test again!

                monster99 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • 1 / 1
                • First post
                  Last post

                Got a burning SEO question?

                Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                Start my free trial


                Explore more categories

                • Moz Tools

                  Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                  Getting Started
                  Moz Pro
                  Moz Local
                  Moz Bar
                  API
                  What's New

                • SEO Tactics

                  Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                  Content Development
                  Competitive Research
                  Keyword Research
                  Link Building
                  On-Page Optimization
                  Technical SEO
                  Reporting & Analytics
                  Intermediate & Advanced SEO
                  Image & Video Optimization
                  International SEO
                  Local SEO

                • Community

                  Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                  Moz Blog
                  Moz News
                  Industry News
                  Jobs and Opportunities
                  SEO Learn Center
                  Whiteboard Friday

                • Digital Marketing

                  Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                  Affiliate Marketing
                  Branding
                  Conversion Rate Optimization
                  Web Design
                  Paid Search Marketing
                  Social Media

                • Research & Trends

                  Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                  SERP Trends
                  Search Behavior
                  Algorithm Updates
                  White Hat / Black Hat SEO
                  Other SEO Tools

                • Support

                  Connect on product support and feature requests.

                  Product Support
                  Feature Requests
                  Participate in User Research

                • See all categories

                • Should I use meta noindex and robots.txt disallow?
                  ntcma
                  ntcma
                  0
                  5
                  2.1k

                • Meta NoIndex tag and Robots Disallow
                  bjs2010
                  bjs2010
                  0
                  5
                  2.1k

                Get started with Moz Pro!

                Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                Start my free trial
                Products
                • Moz Pro
                • Moz Local
                • Moz API
                • Moz Data
                • STAT
                • Product Updates
                Moz Solutions
                • SMB Solutions
                • Agency Solutions
                • Enterprise Solutions
                • Digital Marketers
                Free SEO Tools
                • Domain Authority Checker
                • Link Explorer
                • Keyword Explorer
                • Competitive Research
                • Brand Authority Checker
                • Local Citation Checker
                • MozBar Extension
                • MozCast
                Resources
                • Blog
                • SEO Learning Center
                • Help Hub
                • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                • How-to Guides
                • Moz Academy
                • API Docs
                About Moz
                • About
                • Team
                • Careers
                • Contact
                Why Moz
                • Case Studies
                • Testimonials
                Get Involved
                • Become an Affiliate
                • MozCon
                • Webinars
                • Practical Marketer Series
                • MozPod
                Connect with us

                Contact the Help team

                Join our newsletter

                Access all your tools in one place. Whether you're tracking progress or analyzing data, everything you need is at your fingertips.

                Moz logo
                © 2021 - 2026 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                • Accessibility
                • Terms of Use
                • Privacy

                Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.