Can I Get Sitelinks Without Indexing Categories?

[Lawliet1996]

Hey guys,

Quick question, I’m not really sure about this one kinda hard to find a straight answer honestly
I run a personal blog, and I was wondering when you search your site on Google and it shows those extra links under your site name (like categories or important pages), is that possible without indexing category pages?
Like, can categories still show up in sitelinks even if they’re set to noindex? Or do they have to be indexable for that to work?
Also, should I even index categories? Would love to hear what’s working for you and what you’ve seen in your own setups.
Appreciate any input

 

[IM Dude]

No, noindex means no index and no show on google site links. It's important to index categories because it tell Google what yout site is about, the structure of your site etc etc. It helps distribute link juice within your site. So index the categories don't use or index the tags.

 

[Turbo SEO]

If your category pages are set to noindex, they likely won’t show up as sitelinks in Google. Sitelinks usually come from pages that are indexed and seen as helpful to users. Indexing categories can help if they’re well-structured and add value. On blogs I’ve worked with, optimized category pages tend to perform better when indexed.

 

[Rasmus Jensen]

Typically, categories need to be indexed to appear as sitelinks—indexing helps Google understand your site structure better

 

[Starblazer]

You're explicitly asking Google to not index your categories in serps. So, they'll avoid showing categories in search results and site links. If you want them, then set categories to index. I keep both categories and tags to index as it gives more context to Google about your site and improves your rankings.

 

[Macy Ortiz]

Hey! For sitelinks to show, Google needs to index the page—so if your categories are set to noindex, they likely won’t appear. I usually keep category pages indexed if they’re well-structured and useful. If they’re thin or duplicate content, noindex them. What’s worked best for me is focusing on clean site structure and strong internal links.

 

[RankTrac]

Sitelinks usually require category pages to be indexable to appear. If you set categories to noindex, they likely won’t show as sitelinks. Whether to index categories depends on their SEO value. If they add unique content and help navigation, indexing is beneficial.

 

[Claudiu]

i dont get why you guys are saying that with noindex google cant tell what the site is about. as long as the categories have 'follow' set i dont see where the issue is.
edit: even google explains it that noindex means it wont add it to search engines; and "nofollow" (prevents following links on a page) , ergo setting a category page to 'follow' it will allow following pages (urls) that it contains -and index them if there aint a noindex tag that prevents that from happening-
it seems to me you are confusing things

 

[prince_nirala]

The short answer to your question is a big NO.
Without indexing category pages, they won't be able to appear as sitelinks.
Google don't show the pages with no index in search results. No index simply means not to index.

You can't enable or disable the sitelinks for organic results yourself; it's all handled by Google.

You can follow the best practices to get the chance to show your sitelinks in search results.

What makes sitelinks appear on Google search results:
A logical and clear site structure
Internal Links
Important pages must be indexed by Google
Content on those webpages or category pages must be unique and valuable to users
All those links must be on the Homepage (in the footer- an old practice but sometimes effective, in the menu bar)
Use Schema markup
Rank higher because sitelinks mostly appeared on the top shwoing search results.


If you are running search ads, you can enable them directly for the ads.

 

[camgroup]

For sitelinks to appear in Google search, pages generally need to be indexable—so if category pages are set to noindex, they likely won’t show as sitelinks. Indexing them can help, especially if they’re useful. I recommend testing it based on your blog’s structure and user experience goals.

 

[RapidWorkers]

Hey guys,

Quick question, I’m not really sure about this one kinda hard to find a straight answer honestly
I run a personal blog, and I was wondering when you search your site on Google and it shows those extra links under your site name (like categories or important pages), is that possible without indexing category pages?
Like, can categories still show up in sitelinks even if they’re set to noindex? Or do they have to be indexable for that to work?
Also, should I even index categories? Would love to hear what’s working for you and what you’ve seen in your own setups.
Appreciate any input

if categories are noindex they prob won’t show up in sitelinks. google pulls sitelinks from pages it sees as useful n crawlable. if u want those to show, keep them indexable. just make sure they actually got value n not thin af