I recently observed that a competitor who has achieved the #1 ranking on Google has implemented a noindex/nofollow tag on their product pages. I am uncertain of the purpose behind this tactic, but it appears to be effective as they have maintained their top position and are challenging to surpass. I wonder if this could be a form of black hat SEO, where the noindex tag prevents Google from further crawling the page, thus helping it to retain its ranking. However, the rationale for this strategy is not entirely clear to me. It is an unconventional approach that I do not fully comprehend, especially considering the competitor is a reputable website and likely did not accidentally apply the noindex tag to their products.
It’s unlikely that the noindex/nofollow tag is a black hat SEO tactic aimed at manipulating Google’s rankings. While a noindex tag would indeed prevent Google from indexing the page, it’s more probable that the competitor is employing this strategy for other reasons.
It’s possible they are implementing this strategically to prevent cannibalization of their website’s own rankings. For example, they might be using the noindex/nofollow tag to avoid diluting the ranking of a broader category page or a landing page for the same product. This way, they ensure that the website’s authority and traffic are concentrated on the pages they deem most important.