This template sets the __INDEX__ behavior switch, a
magic word which instructs search engines to index the page. The only difference between the template and the magic word is that the template may optionally display a message.
On English Wikipedia, __INDEX__ and {{INDEX}} should only be used on
User and User talk pages, where they override the default, which is not to index these pages.
Optional parameters
|visible = yes : makes the template display a line of plain text to inform editors that the page is included in search engine indexing, e.g. {{
INDEX|visible = yes}} shows the message:
This page has been added to search engine indexes.
Note: regardless of this parameter, if the template is used in an unsupported namespace, the following will be displayed instead:
Please use {{
INDEX}} only within the User and User talk: namespaces, as those are the only two in which it has an effect.
|demo = yes : makes {{
INDEX}} work even if it is placed in the wrong namespace so that examples of the template can function, e.g. on this doc page – {{
INDEX|visible = yes|demo = yes}} renders as:
This page has been added to search engine indexes.
On English Wikipedia, the default robot policy for the entire wiki is to index all pages. This default has been overridden in these namespaces:
User talk is not indexed, as of September 2008
Draft and Draft talk are not indexed, as of December 2013
User is not indexed, as of November 2015
Additionally certain selected pages, primarily in Wikipedia and Wikipedia talk, are not indexed, as defined in
MediaWiki:Robots.txt.
Mainspace, Draft and Draft talk are exempt from user control, so __INDEX__ is disabled in these namespaces; such use is not tracked (see below), and this template consequently has no effect there.
As all other namespaces are indexed by default, and robots.txt cannot be overridden by __INDEX__, the only namespaces where it overrides the default are User and User talk; however use in other namespaces is tracked.
Usage tracking
This template was originally used as a tracking mechanism for __INDEX__ usage; valid uses are now tracked by
Category:Indexed pages.
Added
$wgContentNamespaces, which allows for articles to exist in namespaces other than the main namespace, and still be counted as valid content in the site statistics (
June 12, 2006)