This article is part of the series Using Techly.

Techly ships with an opt-in indexing model. By default, pages are not indexed and are excluded from sitemap.xml. You decide explicitly which content search engines should discover.

This post covers the front matter and hugo.toml settings involved. For background on robots meta tags and sitemaps in general, see the SEO Basics: Indexing series on my blog.

TL;DR

  • Set index = true in post or page front matter for content that should be indexed.
  • Techly outputs <meta name="robots" content="index"> or noindex accordingly.
  • sitemap.xml lists only pages with index = true, plus the home page when params.indexHome is enabled (default).
  • Override per page with robots = "noindex, follow" when you need finer control.
  • Point crawlers at your sitemap in static/robots.txt.

Opt-in by default

Most Hugo themes include every generated page in sitemap.xml and leave robots meta tags unset. That often means tag archives, search pages, and section listings end up in search indexes alongside your articles.

Techly inverts that default:

Page typeWithout index = trueWith index = true
Posts and pagesnoindex, omitted from sitemapindex, listed in sitemap
Tag / series / search pagesnoindex, omittedOnly if you set index = true
Home pageIndexed when indexHome = true (default)Same

Note: Because indexing is opt-in, remember index = true on every post you want in search results. Auto-generated listing pages stay excluded unless you explicitly opt them in.

Front matter: index

Add to any post or page:

index = true

Example for a published article:

+++
title = 'My Article'
date = 2026-05-21T09:00:00+02:00
description = 'A short summary for cards and meta tags.'
tags = ['hugo']
index = true
+++

Techly’s layouts/_partials/head.html turns that into:

<meta name="robots" content="index">

Pages without index = true (or with index = false) get:

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

Home page: params.indexHome

The home page is treated separately. It is indexed and included in sitemap.xml by default, even without front matter on content/_index.md.

Disable that in your site’s hugo.toml:

[params]
  indexHome = false

When indexHome is true (the theme default), the home page gets content="index" and appears in the sitemap alongside opted-in posts.

Override with robots

For cases like noindex, follow, set a custom value. It overrides the index setting:

robots = 'noindex, follow'

Use this when a page should stay out of the index but you still want crawlers to follow its links.

Sitemap.xml

Techly provides layouts/_default/sitemap.xml. It lists:

  • pages with index = true
  • the home page when params.indexHome is enabled

You do not need a site-level override unless you want different rules.

After building, check public/sitemap.xml. It should contain your opted-in posts (and the home URL), not tag or search pages.

robots.txt

A sitemap helps discovery; it does not control indexing. Keep excluded pages out of the sitemap and use robots meta tags as described above.

Add or extend static/robots.txt:

User-agent: *
Allow: /

Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml

Replace the URL with your production baseURL.

Checklist for a new site

  1. Add index = true to each post and page you want indexed.
  2. Leave indexHome = true (default) if the home page should appear in search.
  3. Verify public/sitemap.xml after hugo build.
  4. Add a Sitemap: line to static/robots.txt.
  5. Submit the sitemap in Google Search Console or your search tool of choice.

Site-wide parameters and other front matter keys are summarized in Configuration overview. Content paths and static/robots.txt are covered in Content folder structure.

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