Myth: "noindex stops Google from crawling the page"

Myth: "noindex stops Google from crawling the page"

Sample: 1,940 noindex URLs across 96 domains, 90-day log window.

Median Googlebot hits per noindex URL after the directive was applied:

— Days 1-30: 6.2 hits ▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░
— Days 31-60: 3.8 hits ▓▓▓▓░░░░░░
— Days 61-90: 2.1 hits ▓▓░░░░░░░░

noindex is a rendering-stage signal. Google must fetch and render the page to see the tag, so crawl never goes to zero. Decay is slow: median 64.7% of pre-noindex crawl frequency still present at day 30.

To cut crawl, you need robots.txt Disallow — but that blocks the fetch, so Google can't read the noindex either. The two directives are mutually exclusive on the same URL.

Delta: pairing them on 312 URLs left 41.3% still indexed (URL-only entries).

So what: noindex controls indexing, not crawl. Don't expect budget relief from it.