<b>Noindex or canonical — which one for near-duplicate pages?</b>

<b>Noindex or canonical — which one for near-duplicate pages?</b>

'Q: I have very similar pages. Should I noindex the extras or canonical them? People tell me different things.'

<b>Short answer:</b> Canonical when the pages are truly equivalent; noindex when one should exist for users but never rank. They are not interchangeable.

The longer version: this trips up a lot of stores. The two tags send opposite messages:

— <code>canonical</code> says 'these are the same page; consolidate all signals onto the chosen one.' Use it for variant URLs, tracking-param URLs, sort orders of the same list. Ranking signals merge.
— <code>noindex</code> says 'this is a distinct, valid page, but keep it out of the index.' Use it for thank-you pages, account pages, some filtered views. Signals do NOT merge — they're discarded.

The classic mistake: canonical + noindex on the same URL. Google gets a contradiction (consolidate vs. drop) and may ignore both. Pick one.

Rule of thumb: same page → canonical (keep the value). Don't-rank-this page → noindex (lose the value). Never both.

Got an indexing question? Drop it.