Optimize your Knowledge Base for better visibility by allowing search engine crawling and indexing

Optimize your Knowledge Base for better visibility by allowing search engine crawling and indexing

All you need to know about no-follow and no-index in KB.


What are article crawlability and indexability?  

Crawlability and indexability are vital for making an article visible and accessible to search engines. When a search engine crawls an article, it reviews the site's content to assess its topic and relevance to specific search queries. If a site lacks crawlability, meaning search engines struggle to scan it effectively, the content will not be indexed and will consequently not appear in search results.
 
Additionally, a site’s content must be appropriately optimized for search engine crawlers, allowing it to be indexed accurately and appear in relevant search outcomes. Ensuring every article is crawlable and indexable can significantly enhance its visibility and improve its search engine rankings.

How do you block search indexing?

There are two methods to apply the no-index directive: using a <meta> tag or via an HTTP response header. Both methods achieve the same result, so select the one that suits your website and content type best. Additionally, you can pair the no-index directive with other indexing rules. For instance, you can combine a no-follow directive with an index like this: <meta name="robots" content=" index, nofollow" />.
Quote<meta> tag 

To prevent all search engines that support the no-index rule from indexing a page on your site, place the following <meta> tag into the<head> section of your page:

Quote<meta name="robots" content="noindex"> 
Notes
Certain search engines may interpret the no-index directive in various ways. Therefore, your page could still appear in other search engines' results.

Usage of the no-index tag 

The no-index rule can be implemented using a <meta> tag or an HTTP response header to restrict search engines that recognize the no-index directive, like Google, from indexing certain content. When Googlebot comes across a page with this tag or header, it will remove that page entirely from Google Search results, regardless of whether there are links from other websites.

Notes
To ensure the index rule works, the page or resource must be accessible and not blocked by a robots.txt file. If blocked, the crawler won't see the index rule, though the page might still show in search results if linked from other pages. An index is beneficial if you lack root server access, as it lets you manage page access individually.

What are no-follow links? 

Typically, it's best to allow robots to follow all links on a webpage. Being overly strict in indicating which links should be followed or marked as no-follow may give the impression that the site is trying to influence how a robot views it.

 

Page sculpting is the practice of using no-follow commands to influence the transfer of signals between pages. In the best-case scenario, these strategies to manipulate bots are ineffective. In the worst-case scenario, trying to control bots with nofollow may result in penalties.

When should you use meta no-follow?

 Consequently, there are limited scenarios in which using meta robots no-follow on websites is appropriate. Typically, encountering meta robots no-follow during SEO audits may indicate that a website has been over-optimized.

What are dofollow links?

 Dofollow links, often called "follow" links, are typical online hyperlinks. Unlike links with specific attributes such as “nofollow” or “sponsored,” these links do not carry unique identifiers. As a result, the following links contribute to the ranking control of the pages they connect to.

Experimenting with crawlability and indexability

Before a website's pages can be displayed in search results, search engine bots must first discover all the pages on the site and then analyze them to determine their rankings. The initial phase of finding pages is called crawling, while the subsequent analysis is called indexing.

 

Crawling starts with bots identifying all the URLs of a website's pages. They primarily find these URLs through internal links within the site or through backlinks from external sites. Once a bot identifies a page’s URL, it retrieves content, including the title, text, images, and additional data, such as the date it was last updated. Restrictions can dictate which files and pages a bot can crawl.

 

Indexing occurs after the crawling process. During this stage, bots assess all the information collected from the crawl. They evaluate whether the content is valuable and authoritative and identify the topics associated with the page and how it compares to other relevant pages. Additionally, search engine bots will determine which search results a page might appear in, if any, and its position within those results.

No-follow vs no-index

Let me give you a typical example of an ad campaign landing page designed solely for traffic from typical ads. It's not ideal to prevent organic search traffic from reaching these pages. Implementing meta robots and a no-index tag will keep search engines from ranking them. 

Summing up

  • No-index tells a robot not to index the page. It should be used to keep pages out of search results or to help with low-quality content issues.
  • Meta nofollow tells a robot not to follow a specific link or all of the links on a page. This should typically not be used.
  • Robots should be allowed to determine what gets indexed and shown in search results. If a page is not intended to be visible in search results, it often shouldn't be part of the website.

 

Please watch this space for more detailed use cases of SEO tags that you can apply to your organisation's knowledge base.

 

Cheers,

 

Kavya Rao,

The Zoho Desk Team


    • Sticky Posts

    • Register for Zoho Desk Beta Community

      With the start of the year, we have decided to take a small step in making the life of our customers a little easier. We now have easy access to all our upcoming features and a faster way to request for beta access. We open betas for some of our features

    • Share your Zoho Desk story with us!

      Tell us how you use Zoho Desk for your business and inspire others with your story. Be it a simple workflow rule that helps you navigate complex processes or a macro that saves your team a lot of time; share it here and help the community learn and grow with shared knowledge. 

    • Tip #1: Learn to pick the right channels

      Mail, live chat, telephony, social media, web forms—there are so many support channels out there. Trying to pick the right channels to offer your customers can get pretty confusing. Emails are most useful when the customer wants to put things on record. However, escalated or complicated issues should not be resolved over email because it's slow and impersonal.  When you need immediate responses, live chat is more suitable. It's also quick and convenient, so it's the go-to channel for small issues. 

    • Welcome to Zoho Desk Community - Say hello here!

      Hello everyone! Though we have been here for a while, it’s time to formally establish the Zoho Desk Community; we’re really happy to have you all here! This can be the place where you take a moment to introduce yourself to the rest of the community. We’d love to hear all about you, what you do, what company or industry you work for, how you use Zoho Desk and anything else that you will like to share! Here’s a little about me. I am Chinmayee. I have been associated with Zoho since 2014. I joined here

    • Webinar 1: Blueprint for Customer Service

      With the launch of a host of new features in Zoho Desk, we thought it’ll be great to have a few webinars to help our customers make the most of them. We’re starting off with our most talked about feature, Blueprint in Zoho Desk. You can register for the Blueprint webinar here: The webinar will be delivered by our in-house product experts. This is a good opportunity to ask questions to our experts and understand how Blueprint can help you automate your service processes. We look forward to seeing

    • Recent Topics

    • Business Continuity - Disaster Recovery

      I know about the Zoho CRM backup .zip files, however, this doesn't include any of the infrastructure with like custom fields or custom modules. I am curious on what everyone has in place for a true backup or what your plan is if your Zoho instance were

    • Narrative 11: Are your customers happy?

      Behind the scenes of a successful ticketing system: BTS Series Narrative 11: Are your customers happy? Happiness isn't just something you experience; it's something you remember. Hear your customers' voices by enabling customer happiness ratings in Zoho

    • Don't understand INVALID_REQUEST_METHOD when I try to post up an attachment

      When I make the POST request (using python requests.post() for files): https://www.zohoapis.com/crm/v8/Calls/***************01/Attachments I get this response: r:{ "code": "INVALID_REQUEST_METHOD", "details": {}, "message": "The http request method type

    • Signature field is showing black

      Hello, When customer signed the service form, it is showing as below picture Phone model: iPhone 16 Pro We tried delete and install application, but it not solved. This has on phone of a few person. There is any advice to solve this?

    • Zoho CRM Android app updates: record sharing, user image upload, Zoho Survey integration, and more

      Hello everyone, We've made some important improvements to Zoho CRM's Android app, and we'd like to walk you through the latest updates. Here's what's new: Record sharing with org users User image upload Zoho Survey integration support Venue preference

    • How to Delete/hide Google adwords section from Layout?

      Hi people, maybe someone can tell me how to remove or hide the Google adwords section from my layout? Im not using it and it takes too much space.

    • WIDGET in related record list ZOHO CRM; how to get and put data to subform custom fields?

      he need: Read and write two custom subform line-item fields on Quotes: Segment_wyceny (picklist/text) and W_pakiecie (number). Write works; read does not return these fields via SDK. Environment Zoho CRM Widget Zoho Embedded App SDK v1.2 Module: Quotes

    • Introducing Assemblies and Kits in Zoho Inventory

      Hello customers, We’re excited to share a major revamp to Zoho Inventory that brings both clarity and flexibility to your inventory management experience! Presenting Assemblies and Kits We’re thrilled to introduce Assemblies and Kits, which replaces the

    • Way to update CRM records in quik view

      I have custom module in zoho crm and that module have 500 records. I want a quick way or UI so that user can easily update the record information in quick view without going to record detail view or edit view. I tried zoho sheet option but in zoho sheet

    • Where to integrate Price Book and Product List Price

      Hello, We sync zoho crm all modules with all data to zoho analytics. In zoho crm, we have "Price Books" and "Products" modules, where each product is assigned to a few price books with different list prices. From zoho crm, I am able to export a dataset

    • Form / CRM Integration Not entering into workflow

      I have a simple form setup with company name, first name, last name and lead source. Each of the fields are mapped to CRM Leads module. When the form is submitted, the lead is populated properly. I also have a workflow created that when the lead source

    • Automating CRM backup storage?

      Hi there, We've recently set up automatic backups for our Zoho CRM account. We were hoping that the backup functionality would not require any manual work on our end, but it seems that we are always required to download the backups ourselves, store them,

    • Zoho Slowness - Workarounds

      Hi all, We've been having intermittent slowness and Zoho just asks for same stuff each time but never fix it. It usually just goes away on it's own after a couple weeks. Given that speed is a very important thing for companies to be able to keep up with

    • Don't understand why Forms Mobile Scan and Fill not working

      I have configure enabled mobile scan and fill, I have enabled QR and Bar code on two fields name and position, I have mapped seq 1 to Name and seq 2 to position, I have created a 2d QR code with the person names and position, seperated by a comma. When

    • Recurring Supervisor Rule Reminders for Open/In-Progress Tickets

      Hello Zoho Support Team, I would like to suggest a potential improvement regarding reminders for tickets and activities in Zoho Desk. Currently, it is possible to set reminders only once. In the Supervisor Rules section, it is possible to configure reminders

    • Template usage

      Hi, We are using some templates as a response to customer questions. Is it possible to analyze the usage of these templates? We want to know if the use of our templates has increased over time

    • Ticket Status Colors

      Can i change the colors of Ticket Status in the admin panel? Or even change the background of the entire cell of a Critical ticket? This way its easy for my agents to see a urgent ticket when it comes in. Right now everything is black text. Here Right

    • Sync Lookup Fields from Zoho CRM

      HI Team, I have synced a lookup field from my CRM data to Campaigns. When I view the synced data the field appears to display a Zoho CRM record ID rather than the text value. Is it possible to get the sync to import the text value rather than the CRM

    • New From Address cannot verify

      I have created a new From Address, which is the support@ address for my domain, that forwards to the default support mailbox. Presumably then, the verification email that is sent, should turn up as a ticket, but it does not. How can I verify my from address so that I can use my own domain?

    • How to update/remove file in zoho creator widgets using javascript API

      Hi Team, I have developed a widget which allows inserting and updating records I have file upload field with multiple file upload. Now while doing insert form record, I am using uploadFile API to upload files for that record. I am using updateRecord API

    • issue with image thumbnails not showing in Image Selector

      We have been using Zoho Campaigns for over a year, maybe close to two years, and this issue just started happening in the last month. I wanted to wait to see if it would resolve on it's own, and it doesn't seem to be. The thumbnail images for all new

    • Deluge Script for adding tag

      Trying to create a custom function where a tag is added to a record - but for the life of me, I cannot figure out how. Help please! Moderation Update: Adding the help doc and sample to add Tags to records via deluge here for everyone's benefit. tag1 =

    • Unlock your Zoho Vault with OneAuth, Windows Hello, TouchID, YubiKey, and many more!

      Hello everyone, We are thrilled to introduce one of the most highly requested features – the ability to unlock your Zoho Vault using various authenticators. The primary purpose of a password manager is to remember just one master password and securely

    • Creator roadmap for the rest of 2022

      Hi everyone, Hope you're all good! Thanks for continuing to make this community engaging and informative. Today we'd like to share with you our plans for the near future of Creator. We always strive to strike a good balance of features and enhancements

    • How can I get base64 string from filecontent in widget

      Hi, I have a react js widget which has the signature pad. Now, I am saving the signature in signature field in zoho creator form. If I open the edit report record in widget then I want to display the Signature back in signature field. I am using readFile

    • Add Setting Values to the Rules

      Hi, It would be great to use the rules to set values in fields for submission, such as if a Type is X then set the Field Y to 10. Thanks Dan

    • So we ran with it for the week

      In our company i bit the bullet and ran with FSM for a whole week. Service calls, deliveries and surveys. Covering about 30-120 miles a day to domestic properties. Loved the appointment list and satnav integration. Loved the timer to measure the appointments.

    • Is there a way to set Document Owner/Sender via the API

      When sending requests for zoho sign, it would seem zoho uses the id of the person that created the zoho api cred to determine the owner_id, is there a way to set a default for this?

    • What's New - September 2025 | Zoho Backstage

      September has been a different month for Zoho Backstage. Instead of rolling out a long list of new features, we focused on something just as important: Performance, reliability, and stability The event season is in full swing, and organizers are running

    • Prevent stripping of custom CSS when creating an email template?

      Anyone have a workaround for this? Zoho really needs to hire new designers - templates are terrible. A custom template has been created, but every time we try to use it, it strips out all the CSS from the head.  IE, we'll define the styles right in the <head> (simple example below) and everything gets stripped (initially, it saves fine, but when you browse away and come back to the template, all the custom css is removed). <style type="text/css"> .footerContent a{display:block !important;} </style>

    • Stock Quotes/Spreadsheet

      It would be nice if we could download security and mutual fund prices from Yahoo Finance (or?) in order to maintain an up to date investment portfolio on Zoho. Any chance?

    • link to any Belgian bookkeeping software?

      Hello, Does anyone on this Forum can help me with the question whether the ZOHO CRM (Invoices) or ZOHO Book can be linked to software that is used for Belgian Bookkeeping/accountancy? By linking, I mean either with the help of a middleware program or either by the ability to export the custom made reports as CSV-files... If someone has an experience with online CRM-Accountancy in Belgium, with ZOHO (or other), it would be great to read it... Thank you

    • marketing automation

      wants to know about the zoho marketing automation

    • Problems with email templates (HTML - Outlook)

      Hi there, I've been trying to create a newsletter from the template "Business 4". Everything looks great in the preview, but when I send it to my Outlook inbox, the layout doesn't seems to stick. More particularly: - The line-height is way more reduced, even though I used the line-height tool from the template - Columns but they are sometimes misaligned - Font size is not always the one I've selected. Could you help? Thanks!

    • How to create a drop down menu in Zoho Sheets

      I am trying to find out, how do I create a drop down option in Zoho sheet. I tried Data--> Data Validation --> Criteria --> Text  --> Contains. But that is not working, is there any other way to do it.  Thanks in Advance.

    • Introducing Keyboard Shortcuts for Zoho CRM

      Dear Customers, We're happy to introduce keyboard shortcuts for Zoho CRM features! Until now, you might have been navigating to modules manually using the mouse, and at times, it could be tedious, especially when you had to search for specific modules

    • Zoho CRM's custom views are now deployable from sandboxes

      This feature is now available for users in the AU, JP, and CN DCs. This feature is now available for users in CA and SA DCs. New update: This feature is now available for users in all DCs. Hello everyone, We're excited to announce that you can now deploy

    • Zoho One - Syncing Merchants and Vendors Between Zoho Expense and Zoho Books

      Hi, I'm exploring the features of Zoho One under the trial subscription and have encountered an issue with syncing Merchant information between Zoho Expense and Zoho Books. While utilizing Zoho Expense to capture receipts, I noticed that when I submit

    • Limit in number of records for subforms and multi-select lookup fields

      It is my understanding that a maximum of 100 items can be selected in a multi-select lookup field, and that a total of 200 items can be selected in total between both subforms in a given module.  Are there any ways to work around this limitation if we

    • Kaizen #136 - Zoho CRM Widgets using ReactJS

      Hey there! Welcome back to yet another insightful post in our Kaizen series! In this post, let's explore how to use ReactJS for Zoho CRM widgets. We will utilize the sample widget from one of our previous posts - Geocoding Leads' Addresses in ZOHO CRM

    • Next Page