Google's Gary Illyes On Noindex With Redirects

Gary Illyes is a Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google, and he has spoken on several occasions about the use of "noindex" tags with redirects.

A "noindex" tag is a signal that tells search engines not to index a particular page. When combined with a redirect, this can be used to prevent duplicate content issues.

In a tweet from 2018, Gary Illyes stated that using a "noindex" tag with a redirect is not necessary, as the redirect alone will prevent the original page from being indexed. He also mentioned that using both a "noindex" tag and a redirect could potentially cause issues with canonicalization.

However, in a more recent tweet from 2021, Gary Illyes clarified that there are situations where using a "noindex" tag with a redirect can be helpful. For example, if you have a page that has been indexed by Google but is no longer needed, and you want to redirect it to another page, using a "noindex" tag with the redirect can help speed up the deindexing process.

In summary, while using a "noindex" tag with a redirect is not always necessary, there may be situations where it can be helpful. It's always a good idea to stay up-to-date with the latest advice from Google and to use best practices when managing your website's content.