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Canonical Tags vs. Noindex Tags: What’s the Difference and When to Use Each?

You are probably here because you have heard about canonical tags and noindex tags, and maybe you are scratching your head trying to figure out what the difference is, when to use one or the other, and how these things play with Google and your site’s SEO. It’s a pretty common question, and we are here to break it down for you.

difference between canonical and noindex

Canonical tags vs noindex tag

First off, both canonical tags and noindex tags are tools you can use to control how Google (and other search engines) treat your web pages. But they do totally different things, so it’s super important to understand the difference so you don’t accidentally mess up your SEO game.

What are Canonical Tags

Imagine you have got a website where the same content shows up on multiple URLs. Maybe it’s your blog post accessible by different paths, or a product page that can be filtered by color or size, all creating different URLs but with basically the same content. Google doesn’t like duplicate content. It can confuse the search engine about which version to show in the results. That’s where the canonical tag swoops in to save the day.

A canonical tag is like a polite sign that you put in the HTML of those duplicate pages, telling Google, “This URL right here is the main, official version. If you want to rank or index a page, use this one.” Technically, a canonical tag looks like this in your page’s <head> section:

Html <link rel=”canonical” href=”https://www.example.com/your-main-page” />

When Google sees this on multiple URLs with the same or very similar content, it knows to consolidate all ranking signals (like backlinks, user engagement, etc.) to that canonical URL. That way, you don’t split your SEO juice among duplicates.

What Are Noindex Tags?

Now, the noindex tag is different from the canonical tags. It’s basically telling Google, “I don’t want you to show this page in search results at all.”

You use a noindex tag on pages that you don’t want users to find via Google. Maybe these pages aren’t useful for SEO, like thank you pages after form submissions, admin pages, or maybe content that’s thin or duplicate but you don’t want to deal with canonicalization.

A noindex tag looks like this in your HTML header:

Html <meta name=”robots” content=”noindex” />

When Googlebot crawls a page with that tag, it will crawl it, see the noindex instruction, and drop that page from its search index, meaning it won’t appear in Google Search results.

Canonical Tag vs Noindex Tag: What’s the Difference?

Here’s the quick breakdown to keep it clear:

Aspect	Canonical Tag	Noindex Tag
Purpose	Tell Google which duplicate URL is the main one.	Tell Google not to include this page in search results.
Indexing	Page can be indexed, but signals consolidated to canonical URL.	Page is removed from index, won’t appear in search.
Crawling	Google still crawls the page.	Google crawls the page, but won’t index it.
Use Case	Duplicate content across multiple URLs.	Pages you don’t want in search (e.g., thank you pages, login pages)
SEO Impact	Helps avoid duplicate content penalties, consolidates ranking signals.	Removes pages from search visibility.

When to use a Canonical Tag vs a Noindex Tag?

Use Canonical Tags When:

You have multiple URLs showing the same or very similar content. Example: Your site uses URL parameters for sorting or filtering products, and those URLs don’t add unique value.

You want to consolidate SEO signals from duplicate or near-duplicate pages.
You want Google to index only one version of the page, but still crawl others.
You want to prevent duplicate content issues without hiding content from search engines.

Examples:

Your blog post is accessible at /blog/post-title and /blog/post-title?ref=newsletter.
You have printer-friendly versions of your pages with different URLs.
Your e-commerce site has the same product available via multiple categories.

Use Noindex Tags When:

You have pages that you don’t want showing up in search results at all.

The pages are low-value or thin content pages that don’t help your SEO.

You want Google to crawl the page (maybe to follow links), but not to index it.

You want to block pages like admin pages, login pages, thank-you pages after form submissions, or duplicate content that you want to completely exclude.

Examples:

A login page or admin dashboard.
A confirmation or thank-you page.
Duplicate content pages that don’t have canonical alternatives.
A staging or development site you don’t want indexed.

Canonical Tags Guide

Check the curated canonical tags guide below:

Always make sure your canonical URLs are absolute URLs (include the full URL starting with https://).

Use canonical tags consistently across your site.

The canonical URL should point to the “best” or preferred version of the page.

Don’t canonicalize a page to an unrelated URL — keep it relevant.

Don’t use canonical tags as a way to block low-value pages; use noindex instead.

Google treats canonical tags as a hint, not a command, so they can sometimes ignore them if signals conflict.

Canonical Tag vs 301 Redirect

The real difference: Canonical tag vs 301 redirects

A 301 redirect actually sends users (and search engines) from one URL to another. It’s a server-side instruction. If someone goes to the old URL, they get automatically sent to the new one. This transfers almost all SEO value to the new URL and eliminates duplicate content because the old page is basically gone.

A canonical tag is a client-side instruction inside the HTML that tells search engines which URL is preferred, but users can still access the duplicate pages if they want. So, when to use which?

Use 301 redirects when you want to permanently move a page or consolidate URLs so users don’t see duplicates.

Use canonical tags when you want multiple URLs to exist but tell Google which one to prioritize for SEO.

What About “Google Crawled But Not Indexed”?

Sometimes, you might notice in Google Search Console that a page is “Crawled – currently not indexed.” It is commonly known as Google crawled but not indexed. This means Googlebot found your page, crawled it, but chose not to add it to its index. This can happen for a few reasons:

The page has a noindex tag, so it’s deliberately excluded.
The page is thin or has low-quality content.
Google thinks it’s duplicate content and prefers the canonical URL.
The page might be new, and Google hasn’t decided to index it yet.

If you want your pages indexed, make sure:

You don’t have noindex tags accidentally on pages you want to rank.
Your canonical tags point correctly.
Content is unique and valuable.
You don’t block Googlebot via robots.txt on important pages.

Winding Up

At the end of the day, canonical tags and noindex tags are just part of your SEO toolkit. Knowing when to use each keeps your site clean in Google’s eyes, prevents duplicate content drama, and helps your best pages shine. SEO can feel overwhelming, and that’s where GTECH, the best search engine optimization company in Dubai, can help you. Contact us today and have a neat SEO optimized website.

Omkar Khatale Jangam