Https-pages still in the SERP's

[accessKellyOCG]

Hi all,

my problem is the following: our CMS (self-developed) produces https-versions of our "normal" web pages, which means duplicate content.

Our it-department put the <noindex,nofollow>on the https pages, that was like 6 weeks ago.</noindex,nofollow>

I check the number of indexed pages once a week and still see a lot of these https pages in the Google index. I know that I may hit different data center and that these numbers aren't 100% valid, but still... sometimes the number of indexed https even moves up.

Any ideas/suggestions? Wait for a longer time? Or take the time and go to Webmaster Tools to kick them out of the index?

Another question: for a nice query, one https page ranks No. 1. If I kick the page out of the index, do you think that the http page replaces the No. 1 position? Or will the ranking be lost? (sends some nice traffic :-))...

thanx in advance

[MalcolmGibb]

I think I answered the same question you posted before, but did you try and use canonical tags? As I said using noindex and nofollow is probably not the best option if Google doesn't know that it should show http: instead of https.

Have you tried searching for http versions of your site listed? Are there any pages that are just http listed?

[Cyrus-Shepard]

Hi Stefan,

If Google is finding those https pages, instead of a noindex, nofollow tag, I'd try on of the following:

• Redirect https pages to http via 301s (preferred)
• Add a canonical tag pointing to the http version (as Malcolm's suggested)

By using these methods, you have the best chance of preserving your rankings for any of the https that appear in the SERPS, and you also preserve any link equity that is flowing through them. If Google is finding https pages of your site, then there is the possibility that some link juice is currently flowing through them.

This also solves the problem of any visitors accidentally landing on https that you don't want to be there. Although in reality, there is nothing wrong with this. Today, entire sites are https and rank quite well.

It can take a long, long time for Google to remove URLs from their results. Before you can request removal, the URL either has to return a 404 or a 410 status code, or be blocked by robots.txt. Since neither of these are a good option for you, I'd stick with the 301 or the canonical solution.

Best of luck with your SEO!