What happens when canonical and noindex signals conflict?

For example:

<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.theseocentral.com/page-a">
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">

This tells Google both that the page belongs to another representative URL and that this page should not be indexed.

Instead of relying on contradictory combinations, define the desired state clearly:

• duplicate → canonicalize;
• excluded page → noindex;
• never crawl → robots.txt where appropriate.

Google's canonicalization documentation and robots guidance should be considered together when designing the rule.