Playbook: Decide robots.txt block vs noindex without deindexing by accident

Playbook: Decide robots.txt block vs noindex without deindexing by accident
The #1 indexing footgun: blocking a URL in robots.txt that ALSO has a noindex tag. Google can't read the noindex it never crawls it.

Setup:
— Want it OUT of the index? Use noindex meta/header and ALLOW crawling in robots.txt
— Want to save crawl budget on junk? Use robots.txt Disallow but accept it may still appear as a URL-only result
— NEVER combine: a robots-blocked page keeps a stale index entry forever
— Verify with GSC Inspect: Indexing allowed? No: noindex detected means it worked

What it does well: this rule prevents the most common 'why won't this deindex' ticket.

Where it falls short: deindex via noindex requires Google to recrawl, which can take weeks on low-priority URLs.

Pros:
— Prevents permanent ghost entries
— Clear decision rule
Cons:
— noindex needs a recrawl to fire
— Slow on low-crawl pages

Best for: anyone managing faceted nav or paginated archives. NOT a fast emergency removal use the Removals tool for that.