Information:Controlling search engine indexing

Namespace	Status	Indexed	Can be overridden
(main)	newer than 90 days, unpatrolled	No	No
	newer than 90 days, patrolled	Yes	Yes
	older than 90 days	Yes	No
User:	newer than 90 days, unpatrolled	No	No
	newer than 90 days, patrolled	No	Yes
	older than 90 days	No	Yes
User talk:	n/a	No	Yes
Draft:		No	No
Draft talk:		No	No
All others		Yes	Yes

There are a variety of ways in which the BattleTechWiki attempts to control search engine indexing, commonly termed "noindexing". The default behavior is that pages are indexed. All of the methods rely on using the noindex HTML meta tag, which tells search engines not to index certain pages. Respecting the tag, especially in terms of removing already indexed content, is up to the individual search engine, and in theory the tag may be ignored entirely.

The control methods are:

1. Controlling an entire namespace, via MediaWiki software settings
2. Controlling classes of pages, via MediaWiki:Robots.txt (BattleTechWiki's Robots.txt file)
3. Controlling individual pages by adding the __NOINDEX__ magic word into them, either directly or using the {{NOINDEX}} template, however articles are a special case, see #Indexing of articles ("mainspace").
4. Controlling multiple pages by adding the __NOINDEX__ magic word into standard templates used in certain situations (same caveat as in the third point).

Indexing of articles ("mainspace")

Articles older than 90 days are automatically indexed. The __NOINDEX__ magic word and the {{NOINDEX}} template do not work on them. Articles younger than 90 days are not indexed, unless they have been patrolled and do not have the __NOINDEX__ magic word or the {{NOINDEX}} template on them (or a template that transcludes the {{NOINDEX}} template, such as the speedy deletion templates). Note that &action=info will incorrectly state that they are indexed. Articles that include the {{NOINDEX}} template are listed at Category:Noindexed articles.

Robots.txt noindexing

MediaWiki:Robots.txt forbids analytic tools from visiting sensitive or potentially sensitive types of pages, primarily in the BattleTechWiki namespace. A side effect of not visiting is normally that a page cannot be indexed. Where possible, you should in addition use __NOINDEX__ for those pages.

NOINDEX magic word

Individual pages

Individual pages can be noindexed by adding the __NOINDEX__ magic word into that page, either directly or using the {{NOINDEX}} template. As explained above, this magic word doesn't work in mainspace (on articles).

Pages with the keyword are listed in Category:Noindexed pages.

Standard template noindexing

Some standard templates include the __NOINDEX__ keyword, thereby noindexing pages to which the templates are applied. Such templates should be listed in Category:Templates which apply NOINDEX.

Other templates

These templates include {{NOINDEX}}:

• {{User sandbox}}, {{Userspace draft}}
• {{Banned user}}, {{Blocked user}} and others like them

See also Category:Templates which apply NOINDEX.

• {{Uw-userspacenoindex}} provides a user warning message for inappropriate use of userspace which required noindexing.

INDEX magic word

Individual pages

Individual pages can override namespace noindexing by adding the __INDEX__ magic word into that page, either directly or using the {{INDEX}} template. Such pages appear in Category:Indexed pages. However, INDEX does not override noindexing via MediaWiki:Robots.txt. As explained above, this magic word doesn't work in mainspace (on articles).

Nofollow HTML attribute

Main article: Meta:nofollow

Since 2007, all links to other websites from English Wikipedia have the nofollow HTML attribute set. This means that on pages that are indexed by search engines, any links found by a search engine on those pages should not influence the link target's ranking in the search engine's index.