Noindex pages being indexed
-
Hi all
Wondering if anyone could offer a pointer on a problem i am having please. I am developing an affiliate store and to prevent problems with duplicate content I have added name="robots" content="NOINDEX,FOLLOW" /> to all the product pages to avoid google penalties.
However, Google appears to be indexing product pages. When I do a site: search I see a few hundred product pages in the engine. This is odd as the site has always had noindex on these pages. Even viewing the cache of the indexed page shows the noindex meta tag to be in place.
I'm at a loss as to why these pages are being indexed and could do with removing them asap to stop any penalties on the site.
Many thanks for any help.
-
Thanks for taking the time to look at the site.
Not sure why the code is coming in the wrong place it is using a magento seo plugin so will need to chase them up on that. Just searched a random selection of pages and the code seems to be in the header section on all of those, so it seems there are some pages not playing nicely.
I would like to index the product pages but there are over 250,000 items pulled from the merchants and no chance of writing that much unique content so I feel safest to noindex them all. The main traffic strategy will be to use content which will promote items, such as fashion advice pieces etc.
In the example you give, that seems to be a problem with the categories, will check that out, thanks for pointing it out.
-
Okay, i have found the indexing problem. The noindex meta tag should be placed within the head section of your HTML. It is now in your body content so it's not getting used.
Are you sure you want to no-index product pages though? These are very important pages on your site and there are other ways to fix duplicate content issues.
Most duplicate content issues on pages comes from the fact that most CMS systems have the same product at different URL's. On your site i see http://yochic.co.uk/dress-267864/bodycon/black-cut-out-side-bodycon-dress.html and http://yochic.co.uk/black-cut-out-side-bodycon-dress.html
Same product, different URL. This could be fixed by adding a rel="canonical" on product pages which links back to the preferred version. Easiest would be to link back to www.domain.com/product.html
This would solve most duplicate content issues without having to deindex them.
Hope i was helpful, if you have any questions left, feel free to ask me.
-
hi, yes, maybe should have added that to start with. The site is yochic. co. uk - it is still being worked on so bear that in mind with random products in the wrong places or wonky looking menus.
The category pages are set to be indexed so no problem there, the product pages are the ones which contain the most duplicate content so have been blocked, but a number are still going in the listing.
-
Perhaps you could give us a link to your website using the following notation: domainname (dot) TLD It's difficult to tell you what the problem is without being able to take a look at your site.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Google Console returning 0 pages as being indexed
HI there, I submitted my site notebuster.net to Search Console over a month ago and it is showing 0 pages as being indexed under the index status report. I know this isn't right as I can see that in google alone by typing in (site:notebusters.net) there are 113 pages indexed. Any idea why this might be? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | CosiCrawley0 -
Page rank question
Hi all, pretty standard SEO question that I'm sure you are all getting asked day in, day out... the following page: http://www.3wisemonkeys.co.uk/dvd/portable-dvd-player-car/ It's targetting keywords "portable dvd", "portable DVD player", "portable DVD players" & "portable dvd player for car". The page gets a grade A via Moz analytics On-page grader for the keywords. We have incoming links and I believe the page is structured correctly with all meta tags, H1 etc and tried not too overload the tags with keywords. We have the keywords in the URL etc. We are still stuck on page 2 for all phrases. Any thoughts or suggestions as to what we are doing wrong please? Any help would be great.
On-Page Optimization | | jasef0 -
How to rank well on 2 keywords - 2 separate pages or 1 combined page
Hi, I have a website about allergy. We ar developing new content, and through keyword research I have discovered that "dog allergy" and "cat allergy" are both very common searches. However, the cause, and symtoms are very alike for these 2 types of allergy so it would make sense to combine the two allergies on one page. So my question is: What do I choose to increase my chances to ranke the best I can for both "cat allergy", and "dog allergy"? Should I develop 2 separate pages for cat & dog allergy or should I do a combined page? (We would of course review the texts so no duplicate content/text would be used if we chose to have 2 pages) I would be so greatful for your advice!! Kind regards, Jeanette
On-Page Optimization | | Mylan-GDM0 -
Indexation problem
Hello, I have an online store specialized in offers and discounts (http://www.offertazo.com/) with an indexation problem. The products are not updated correctly. I think the problem is that when I publish a new offer, it doesn´t appear on the top of my page´s SERP. I would appreciate any suggestions. Best regwards.
On-Page Optimization | | ofuente0 -
Limiting On Page Links
Right now, we have about 160 or so links on the home page. It's been recommended that we keep it to under 100, though that's not as big of a deal as it once was. Is it helpful to make a bunch of those links "nofollow" in order to preserve link juice? Is it going to make a difference, or be at all helpful? I assume it won't be harmful, especially as a bunch of them are to the same page but on different sections of the page. Would live your advice and thoughts! Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | DeliaAssociates0 -
Some of my pages are ranking for terms which I want other pages to rank for. What can I do to effectively switch the ranking?
Some of the pages are ranking for terms I have optimised other pages for. The pages which are ranking are quite rightly falling, because they aren't optimised for the terms they're showing for. However, I have pages which are optomised for those terms. How do I switch the SERPS to the page I want?
On-Page Optimization | | GlobalLingo1 -
Should I noindex both category and tag archive pages if I have an excerpt format?
I am creating a blog and want to know if I should noindex archives for categories and tags. I changed the format of my blog to excerpts to prevent duplicate content, but I want to make sure I also need to noindex those pages. Please help!
On-Page Optimization | | lwilkins1 -
Page Cache And Index
If you are browsing a site, what is the best way or programs to use to see if the page has been indexed and cached? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | gregster10000