Can I restrict Google or other search engines from indexing my help center?

Question

How can I restrict Google from indexing my help center? I have a FAQ on Zendesk I don't want to see or find on search engines.

Answer

Multiple methods remove help center content from external search engine results, such as Google.

Add a no-index tag to the help center theme so search engines don't index all pages or display them in search results, rather than only one page

You can also restrict specific articles to signed-in users with user segments. Google doesn't index articles that require a login.

If your help center requires users to sign in to view its content, search engines don't index the page by default.

However, if anyone can view your public help center without a login, you must add a noindex meta tag to the theme code. Search engines then don't display articles in search results.

To restrict the indexation of your public help center:

In Knowledge admin, click the Customize design icon () in the sidebar

Click the theme to open it

Click Edit code and select document_head.hbs

Enter the line of code as shown below:

<meta name="robots" content="noindex" />

Click Publish

Note: The Google crawler and other internet spiders update search indexes in an automated queue. Zendesk doesn't control crawler bots and the update cadence of external search engines. A delay applies if you intend to remove content, as Google handles page indexation and removal for public online pages. After you add the noindex tag to the source code, the index removal process can take months. This timeline is independent of the platform.