Adding NOINDEX tag to products

Question

We no longer have a web developer but need to add NOINDEX tags to all our products to help with our SEO

We have about 450 products at any one time

We are using Magento 1.8.1.0

We are complete novices when it comes to anything but the very basic Admin actions and all the answers we have seen instruct us to alter or add code.

This goes way above our heads.

Could someone please let us have step by step instructions on how to do this that even a complete novice can understand and implement

Thanks for your help

Answer 1

Go to app/design/frontend/{your package}/{your theme}/layout/local.xml and add this:

<catalog_category_default> //category page 
    <reference name="head">
        <action method="setRobots"><value>NOINDEX,FOLLOW</value></action>
    </reference>
</catalog_category_default>

<catalog_category_layered> //category page with filters
    <reference name="head">
        <action method="setRobots"><value>NOINDEX,FOLLOW</value></action>
    </reference>
</catalog_category_layered>

<catalog_product_view> //product view page
    <reference name="head">
        <action method="setRobots"><value>NOINDEX,FOLLOW</value></action>
    </reference>
</catalog_product_view>

Reference

Answer 2

1.) If you want to set NOINDEX for every page (product, CMS, ...), you can do this from backend: Admin - System - Configuration - General - Design - HTML Head - Default Robots.

2.) If you want to set it for all product pages, add this to your app/design/frontend/THEME/PACKAGE/layout/local.xml

<catalog_product_view>
    <reference name="head">
        <action method="setRobots"><value>NOINDEX,NOFOLLOW</value></action>
    </reference>
</catalog_product_view>

(For other pages then "Catalog Product View" take a look at the other XML-files in layout folder to find the correct so called "Layout Handles" like catalog_product_view)

3.) If you want to set it for a particular product, you can add this in product edit page Tab: Design - Custom Layout Updates

<reference name="head">
    <action method="setRobots"><value>NOINDEX,NOFOLLOW</value></action>
</reference>