Meta robots nofollow flag

The meta robots nofollow flag shows whether a page includes a nofollow directive in its robots meta tag. This directive tells search engines not to follow links found on that page in the normal way.

That makes it an important signal to monitor. A page may still be live, indexable, and visible to users, yet a change to nofollow can still alter how search engines move through the site and interpret internal linking.

What it is

The nofollow flag is a simple yes-or-no check.

If a page’s robots meta tag includes nofollow, the value is TRUE. If it does not, the value is FALSE.

For example:

<meta name="robots" content="index,nofollow">

This means the page itself may still be indexed, but search engines are being told not to follow the links on that page.

SEOlerts monitors whether nofollow is present at all. In the example value here, it is FALSE, which means the page previously allowed normal link following.

Why it matters

Internal links help search engines discover pages, understand site structure, and interpret which content is most important. A nofollow directive can change that behaviour at page level.

If nofollow appears unexpectedly on key pages, search engines may treat links from those pages differently. That can weaken the flow of discovery and reduce the clarity of your internal linking setup. On large sites, that may affect how efficiently deeper pages are crawled.

There are valid uses for nofollow in some edge cases, but for most important pages it is not a routine directive. That is why a change deserves review.

What can go wrong if unchecked

If nofollow is added unexpectedly, the page may stop passing normal link signals through its outgoing links. Even when the page itself remains indexable, that shift can still affect crawl behaviour and site architecture.

Possible causes include:

• a CMS or SEO plugin changing robots defaults
• a template update altering page-level directives
• staging or development settings reaching the live site
• manual SEO changes being applied too broadly
• conditional logic affecting the wrong page types

If the change goes unnoticed, category pages, navigation pages, editorial hubs, or other important linking pages may become less useful as pathways for crawlers.

The reverse can matter too. If nofollow is removed from pages that were intentionally restricted, search engines may begin following links from areas that were meant to be de-emphasised or kept separate.

Not every change is harmful, but unexpected changes can alter crawling patterns in ways that are easy to miss.

Why monitoring it matters

Monitoring the nofollow flag gives you a focused check on a directive that can influence crawl behaviour without making the page obviously broken.

This is useful because page-level nofollow changes are rarely visible to users. A page can look completely normal while its link instructions to search engines have changed. Monitoring helps catch that early after deployments, plugin updates, template edits, or SEO configuration changes.

It also helps separate broader robots changes from the specific directive that affects link following.

What an alert may mean

An alert means the presence of nofollow in the robots meta tag has changed.

If the value changes from FALSE to TRUE, the page now includes nofollow. In practice, that could mean:

• links on the page are now being treated differently by search engines
• a template or plugin has changed robots output
• a page type has been reconfigured
• a technical or editorial change has altered crawl instructions

If the value changes from TRUE to FALSE, the page now allows normal link following again. That could mean:

• a previous restriction has been removed
• robots settings were updated intentionally
• page head logic has changed
• internal linking from that page may now be treated differently

The alert is not proof of an SEO problem on its own. It is a signal that crawl-related instructions have changed and should be checked against what was intended.

What to check next

Start by confirming whether the change was deliberate.

Then review:

• the current robots meta tag on the page
• whether the page should allow normal link following
• whether the affected page is important for internal linking
• whether the change affects one page, a group of pages, or a shared template
• recent CMS, plugin, or deployment changes that may explain it

It is also worth checking related elements such as internal linking patterns, crawl reports, canonicals, and other robots directives. A nofollow change often sits alongside wider updates to page head settings.

If nofollow appears on key navigational or hub pages unexpectedly, treat it as a priority review, because those pages often play an important role in helping search engines reach other content.

Key takeaway

The meta robots nofollow flag shows whether a page tells search engines not to follow its links. Monitoring it helps you catch changes that may affect crawling and internal link behaviour, even when the page itself still looks fine. An alert means the page’s link-following instructions have changed, and that change should be reviewed to confirm it is intentional and appropriate.