The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • My Q&A
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. SEO and Digital Marketing Q&A Forum
    2. Categories
    3. Intermediate & Advanced SEO
    4. Why do my https pages index while noindexed?

    Why do my https pages index while noindexed?

    Intermediate & Advanced SEO
    3 2 136
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • MarloSchneider
      MarloSchneider last edited by

      I have some tag pages on one of my sites that I meta noindexed. This worked for the http version, which they are canonical'd to but now the https:// version is indexing.

      The https version is both noindexed and has a canonical to the http version, but they still show up!  I even have wordpress set up to redirect all https: to http! For some reason these pages are STILL showing in the SERPS though. Any experience or advice would be greatly appreciated.

      Example page: https://www.michaelpadway.com/tag/insurance-coverage/

      Thanks all!

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • danatanseo
        danatanseo last edited by

        Hi Spencer,

        I am an in-house SEO to a fairly large e-commerce site (4,000 SKUs) that has the same exact problem. As I am sure you are aware, the META robots noindex tag is only a suggestion to goooglebot. This is something the bot can easily choose to ignore, and it frequently does ignore it.

        I would suggest submitting individual URLs that you would prefer to be removed from Google in Google Webmaster Tools to the "Remove URLS"  tool - It's not instantaneous, but it does work.

        I hope that helps. I know it's frustrating. We have tons of content that's indexed that we'd rather wasn't. It takes time, patience and intelligent work to get the job done.

        Dana

        MarloSchneider 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • MarloSchneider
          MarloSchneider @danatanseo last edited by

          That is true, but I also have them 301'd to the http version and canonicaled! That is pretty much every possible signal to tell them those pages aren't pages and don't index them.

          I suppose we can submit the URLs, unfortunately there are a LOT of tag pages.

          Thanks for the advice Dana!

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • 1 / 1
          • First post
            Last post
          • Site moved. Unable to index page : Noindex detected in robots meta tag?!
            effectdigital
            effectdigital
            0
            4
            1.7k

          • Google Indexing Of Pages As HTTPS vs HTTP
            ThompsonPaul
            ThompsonPaul
            1
            13
            1.4k

          • What to do when your home page an index for a series of pages.
            donford
            donford
            0
            7
            154

          • Our client's web property recently switched over to secure pages (https) however there non secure pages (http) are still being indexed in Google. Should we request in GWMT to have the non secure pages deindexed?
            N1ghteyes
            N1ghteyes
            0
            3
            128

          • HTTP Pages Indexed as HTTPS
            friendoffood
            friendoffood
            0
            5
            95

          • Google indexing "noindex" pages
            khi5
            khi5
            0
            5
            111

          • Index Pages become No-Index
            TimKelsey
            TimKelsey
            0
            6
            114

          • NOINDEX listing pages: Page 2, Page 3... etc?
            dunklea
            dunklea
            0
            3
            686

          Get started with Moz Pro!

          Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

          Start my free trial
          Products
          • Moz Pro
          • Moz Local
          • Moz API
          • Moz Data
          • STAT
          • Product Updates
          Moz Solutions
          • SMB Solutions
          • Agency Solutions
          • Enterprise Solutions
          • Digital Marketers
          Free SEO Tools
          • Domain Authority Checker
          • Link Explorer
          • Keyword Explorer
          • Competitive Research
          • Brand Authority Checker
          • Local Citation Checker
          • MozBar Extension
          • MozCast
          Resources
          • Blog
          • SEO Learning Center
          • Help Hub
          • Beginner's Guide to SEO
          • How-to Guides
          • Moz Academy
          • API Docs
          About Moz
          • About
          • Team
          • Careers
          • Contact
          Why Moz
          • Case Studies
          • Testimonials
          Get Involved
          • Become an Affiliate
          • MozCon
          • Webinars
          • Practical Marketer Series
          • MozPod
          Connect with us

          Contact the Help team

          Join our newsletter
          Moz logo
          © 2021 - 2026 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
          • Accessibility
          • Terms of Use
          • Privacy