In short. Select the intended pages, choose Set to Noindex in Rank Math PRO's bulk actions menu, click Apply, and check the confirmation and robots directive.
Definition: The
noindexdirective tells supporting search engines to exclude a page from their index. As of October 2026, Rank Math PRO provides a Set to Noindex bulk action that applies this directive to selected WordPress posts, pages, or custom posts.
Key facts
- Rank Math's bulk editing guide labels Set to Noindex as a PRO feature.
- WordPress's Pages screen documentation explains that each row's checkbox selects a page for a bulk action.
- Google's noindex documentation requires the affected page to remain accessible to its crawler so it can read the directive.
How are the pages selected and changed?
The WordPress pages list is the starting point for selecting individual pages. According to the Pages screen documentation, checking the box beside a page selects that row; checking additional boxes adds more pages to the selection. The Search Pages field narrows the displayed results by search words. The date dropdown and Filter button narrow the list by publication date.
Screen Options controls the number of pages displayed per list page. WordPress also documents pagination controls for moving through longer lists. Each batch requires selecting the intended rows before applying an action.
Rank Math's bulk editing guide places bulk actions on the all-posts and all-pages screens. After filtering and selecting the intended content, choosing Set to Noindex in the bulk actions menu and clicking Apply changes the selected items' robots metadata. The same action supports custom posts.
How is the change checked?
Rank Math's bulk editing guide says the list refreshes after the action, displays a confirmation notice, and shows the post's status in the list. Its Article Noindexed filter returns posts or pages set to noindex: selecting the filter and clicking Filter displays matching items.
For an individual page, Rank Math's Advanced tab documentation describes the Robots Meta controls. These settings apply to the current post. Selecting No Index automatically disables Index, and selecting Index disables No Index.
The page's HTML provides another check. Google's noindex documentation gives this minimal tag for the HTML <head>:
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">
This is Google's example of the directive to look for; a page can combine noindex with other robots values. Google also documents using Search Console's URL Inspection tool to see the HTML Googlebot received and the Page Indexing report to monitor pages where Googlebot extracted noindex. A robots.txt block prevents Googlebot from reading the tag.
Related terms
- noindex
- How do I set noindex on a page in Rank Math?
- Can Google read noindex on a page blocked by robots.txt?
FAQ
Can I reverse a bulk noindex change?
Rank Math's bulk editing guide documents Set to Index as another PRO bulk action. You select the affected posts, choose that action, and click Apply.
Why can a changed page still appear in Google?
Google's noindex documentation explains that Google must crawl a page after the directive is added. You can use URL Inspection to check the HTML Googlebot received; access blocked by robots.txt also prevents it from seeing the directive.
Sources
- Rank Math, "Bulk Editing in Rank Math", undated
- WordPress.org, "Pages screen", updated 8 June 2024
- Rank Math, "Advanced Tab in Rank Math Meta Box", undated
- Google Search Central, "Block Search indexing with noindex", updated 10 December 2025
Check how a page reads to answer engines. Open the GEO score analyzer