diff --git a/app/(main)/admin/_tabs/settings.tsx b/app/(main)/admin/_tabs/settings.tsx
index 63468cf7..cbd6b4c1 100644
--- a/app/(main)/admin/_tabs/settings.tsx
+++ b/app/(main)/admin/_tabs/settings.tsx
@@ -125,6 +125,7 @@ export function SettingsTab() {
         )}
         <ToggleSetting label="Stalwart Features" description="Enable Stalwart Mail Server-specific features" configKey="stalwartFeaturesEnabled" value={currentValue('stalwartFeaturesEnabled') as boolean} source={config.stalwartFeaturesEnabled?.source} onChange={handleChange} onRevert={handleRevert} />
         <ToggleSetting label="Demo Mode" description="Enable demo mode with sample data" configKey="demoMode" value={currentValue('demoMode') as boolean} source={config.demoMode?.source} onChange={handleChange} onRevert={handleRevert} />
+        <ToggleSetting label="Search Engine Indexing" description="Allow search engines to index this webmail. Off (the default) sends noindex/nofollow in the page head, recommended for private deployments." configKey="searchEngineIndexing" value={currentValue('searchEngineIndexing') as boolean} source={config.searchEngineIndexing?.source} onChange={handleChange} onRevert={handleRevert} />
       </SettingsSection>
 
       <SettingsSection title="JMAP Servers (multi-server)">
diff --git a/app/(main)/layout.tsx b/app/(main)/layout.tsx
index 05572ca3..65d4bba1 100644
--- a/app/(main)/layout.tsx
+++ b/app/(main)/layout.tsx
@@ -49,6 +49,11 @@ export async function generateMetadata(): Promise<Metadata> {
   return {
     title: process.env.APP_NAME || process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_NAME || "Webmail",
     description: t("meta_description"),
+    // A private webmail should not be indexed by search engines. This is opt-in
+    // via Settings -> General; the default (false) emits noindex/nofollow.
+    robots: configManager.get<boolean>("searchEngineIndexing", false)
+      ? { index: true, follow: true }
+      : { index: false, follow: false },
     appleWebApp: {
       capable: true,
       statusBarStyle: "black-translucent",
diff --git a/lib/admin/types.ts b/lib/admin/types.ts
index 4a89ba26..b2a7e8bd 100644
--- a/lib/admin/types.ts
+++ b/lib/admin/types.ts
@@ -136,6 +136,7 @@ export const CONFIG_ENV_MAP: Record<string, { envVar: string; fileEnvVar?: strin
   appName: { envVar: 'APP_NAME', type: 'string', defaultValue: 'Webmail' },
   appShortName: { envVar: 'APP_SHORT_NAME', type: 'string', defaultValue: '' },
   appDescription: { envVar: 'APP_DESCRIPTION', type: 'string', defaultValue: '' },
+  searchEngineIndexing: { envVar: 'SEARCH_ENGINE_INDEXING', type: 'boolean', defaultValue: false },
   jmapServerUrl: { envVar: 'JMAP_SERVER_URL', type: 'url', defaultValue: '' },
   stalwartFeaturesEnabled: { envVar: 'STALWART_FEATURES', type: 'boolean', defaultValue: true },
   demoMode: { envVar: 'DEMO_MODE', type: 'boolean', defaultValue: false },