X-Robots-Tag: noindex inhibits research

I noticed that, for whatever reason, the HTTP header "X-Robots-Tag: noindex" is applied to any Ensign article older than January 2000. This header directs search engines to avoid indexing those articles.

This header inhibited me from looking up a quote for which I had an incomplete reference. I eventually identified the talk using third party websites and could then directly navigate to it on the church website.

I would have preferred to leverage a public search engine's capability to find the content that I was looking for with a link directly to the church website instead of wading through links to third parties and their associated commentary.

I suppose that "noindex" might be used as part of a search engine optimization effort, but in this particular user journey, the search engine experience was not optimal.

I am not aware of all the implications, but my personal preference would be that all church content that was ever public remain publicly indexed by search engines.

If you start a search on ChurchofJesusChrist.org, there's a link "Search the archive for pre-2000 content" that you can use to search older content.
I think it's intentional – so that if someone searches for a gospel topic, they are more likely to find up-to-date resources – but I agree that it's a little clunky. It might be worth sending feedback using the Feedback link at the bottom of the search pages on the Church website.

Thanks, I was not aware of the archive on-site search feature!