Why do my https pages index while noindexed?

[MarloSchneider]

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!

[MarloSchneider]

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!

[danatanseo]

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