How do I set canonical URLs and noindex in Webflow?

Set the global canonical URL to your default domain

A canonical tag tells search engines which URL is the preferred copy of a page. That matters when the same page can be reached with or without www, with http or https, or with extra query parameters. Webflow can write a canonical tag for every page from one base URL.

Open Site settings, then SEO, then Global canonical tag URL. Enter the base URL that matches your default domain, such as https://www.yourdomain.com. Include https. Include www only when the default domain uses www. Do not add a trailing slash. Save, then publish. Until you publish, the live site still has the previous tags.

Search engines treat https://yourdomain.com and https://www.yourdomain.com as different hosts. If the canonical host does not match the domain you set as default, you can split ranking signals across two versions of the same page.

Override one page when another URL should rank

A static page can have its own canonical URL. That value replaces the global tag for that page only. Use it when a landing page or campaign URL should pass credit to the page you actually want in search results.

Open the Pages panel, open settings for that static page, and go to SEO settings. Enter a full absolute URL in Page canonical URL, starting with https://. Save and publish.

For example: a spring campaign lives at /spring-offer and repeats the pricing page. Set that page's canonical URL to https://www.yourdomain.com/pricing. The campaign can stay online for ads, while search engines are told to treat the pricing URL as the primary page. If the field is empty or the URL is only a path, search engines may choose a preferred URL on their own.

Noindex a page with sitemap indexing

Canonical tags choose a preferred URL. They do not hide a page. To keep a page out of search results, use the Sitemap indexing toggle. The toggle is available only after the auto-generated sitemap is enabled. Turning it off adds a noindex meta tag and removes the page from the sitemap.

Open the page, go to Page settings, then SEO settings, turn Sitemap indexing off, and publish. Turn it back on and publish again when the page should be eligible for indexing.

A thank-you page after a form, a private draft-like landing page, or the 404 page are common cases. For a thank-you page, leave the form page indexable and turn sitemap indexing off only on the thank-you URL.

Blocking the same URL in robots.txt is not the same control. If you disallow the URL in robots.txt, Webflow can still list it in the auto-generated sitemap. A page that was indexed before can also remain in results when crawlers are blocked, because a search engine may keep a URL it found from other links. For a page that should drop out of the index, use the sitemap indexing toggle, then publish. Google's removals tool can request removal of a URL that is already indexed. If you later turn indexing back on, the URL can return.

Keep staging and single CMS items out of the index

The webflow.io staging subdomain can be indexed unless you turn that off. You need a Site plan or a paid Workspace. Go to Site settings, SEO, Indexing, set Staging indexing to off, save, and publish. Webflow then publishes a robots.txt on that subdomain telling search engines to ignore it. Your custom domain is a separate decision.

On a paid Site plan you can noindex one CMS item. Open the item, go to Item details, and turn Sitemap indexing off. Save and publish. The item gets a noindex meta tag, is left out of the sitemap, and that item setting overrides the broader site indexing setting. This is useful for a testimonial you are not ready to show in search, or a landing item that should stay available only by link. Disabling indexing does not erase a result that is already indexed. Removal of an old result still depends on the search engine catching the noindex tag, or on a removal request.