HTTPS pages - To meta no-index or not to meta no-index?
-
I am working on a client's site at the moment and I noticed that both HTTP and HTTPS versions of certain pages are indexed by Google and both show in the SERPS when you search for the content of these pages.
I just wanted to get various opinions on whether HTTPS pages should have a meta no-index tag through an htaccess rule or whether they should be left as is.
-
Hi Jamie,
If you don’t need the http version accessible and want to force the https you could simply redirect all traffic to the secure site with a 301, transferring all your pagerank to the main site.
If you need both versions of the site accessible, for instance if you only needed https for logged in users, and you only want one version to appear in SERPs the best thing would be to use a canonical tag to consolidate all that SEO juice into the version you wish to rank.
If there’s only a few secure pages with links to other non-secure pages then meta robots noindex,follow would work well, since the SEO juice will flow through those noindexed page and into the rest of your site, but if the whole site is duplicated on both versions this could be a big mistake.
No-indexing an entire https version would be a bad move even if you were using noindex,follow since your internal linking will be to the secure pages. Even though pagerank will be passed through those pages it will eventually come to a dead end or leave through an external links. With the canonical tag, any links pointing to your secure version will pass their SEO juice to the non-secure site, rather than be lost in the noindexed site where it has nowhere to go.
Have a little read of this interview with Matt Cutts a few years back for further clarification, it’s got a good quote about how PR flows through noindexed, followed pages: http://www.stonetemple.com/articles/interview-matt-cutts.shtml
Matt Cutts: A NoIndex page can accumulate PageRank, because the links are still followed outwards from a NoIndex page.
Eric Enge: So, it can accumulate and pass PageRank.
Matt Cutts: Right, and it will still accumulate PageRank, but it won't be showing in our Index. So, I wouldn't make a NoIndex page that itself is a dead end. You can make a NoIndex page that has links to lots of other pages.
So it’ll be different depending on your circumstances but if you’re in doubt, the canonical tag is your best bet as you’re only consolidating those pages in googles eyes. If those pages perform well and you noindex them without sending that PR somewhere useful you could be throwing away all that benefit.
Hope that helps,
Tom
-
Why not rel=
canonical
them?
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
-
No Index thousands of thin content pages?
Hello all! I'm working on a site that features a service marketed to community leaders that allows the citizens of that community log 311 type issues such as potholes, broken streetlights, etc. The "marketing" front of the site is 10-12 pages of content to be optimized for the community leader searchers however, as you can imagine there are thousands and thousands of pages of one or two line complaints such as, "There is a pothole on Main St. and 3rd." These complaint pages are not about the service, and I'm thinking not helpful to my end goal of gaining awareness of the service through search for the community leaders. Community leaders are searching for "311 request service", not "potholes on main street". Should all of these "complaint" pages be NOINDEX'd? What if there are a number of quality links pointing to the complaint pages? Do I have to worry about losing Domain Authority if I do NOINDEX them? Thanks for any input. Ken
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | KenSchaefer0 -
How many links to the same page can there be for each page?
I need to know if I can add more than 2 equal links on the same page, for example 1 link in the header, another in the body and one in the footer
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Jorgesep0 -
Is something wrong with my index after https switch?
I have previously switched sites to https but this one is behaving a little different. On September 19th I switched to https. I did 301 redirects at the .htaccess, added it to search console, and since we are using Magento I changed the base url. In the past when I have done this the http site index just gradually drops while the https site gradually rises. In early October the http site started to slightly drop but since 10/23 there have been no changes. For the https site it started to increase up until 10/23 then stayed flat. Why have they stayed stuck like that for a month?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Tylerj0 -
What is the impact of an off-topic page to other pages on the site?
We are working with a client who has one irrelevant, off-topic post ranking incredibly well and driving a lot of traffic. However, none of the other pages on the site, that are relevant to this client's business, are ranking. Links are good and in-line with competitors for the various terms. Oddly, very few external links reference this off-topic post, most are to the home page. Local profile is also in-line with competitors, including reviews, categorization, geo-targeting, pictures, etc. No spam issues exist and no warnings in Google Search Console. The only thing that seems weird is this off-topic post but that could affect rankings on other pages of the site? Would removing that off-topic post potentially help increase traffic and rankings for the other more relevant pages of the site? Appreciate any and all help or ideas of where to go from here. Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Matthew_Edgar0 -
I have 2 keywords I want to target, should I make one page for both keywords or two separate pages?
My team sells sailboats and pontoon boats all over the country. So while they are both boats, the target market is two different types of people... I want to make a landing page for each state so if someone types in "Pontoon Boats for sale in Michigan" or "Pontoon boats for sale in Tennessee," my website will come up. But I also want to come up if someone is searching for sailboats for sale in Michigan or Tennessee (or any other state for that matter). So my question is, should I make 1 page for each state that targets both pontoon boats and sailboats (total of 50 landing pages), or should I make two pages for each state, one targeting pontoon boats and the other sailboats (total of 100 landing pages). My team has seen success targeting each state individually for a single keyword, but have not had a situation like this come up yet.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | VanMaster0 -
Why are some pages indexed but not cached by Google?
The question is simple but I don't understand the answer. I found a webpage that was linking to my personal site. The page was indexed in Google. However, there was no cache option and I received a 404 from Google when I tried using cache:www.thewebpage.com/link/. What exactly does this mean? Also, does it have any negative implication on the SEO value of the link that points to my personal website?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | mRELEVANCE0 -
Correct Syntax for Meta No Index
Hi, Is this syntax ok for the bots, especially Google to pick up? Still waiting for Google to drop lots of duplicate pages caused by parameters out of the index - if there are parameters in the querystring it inserts the code above into the head. Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | bjs20101 -
Indexing non-indexed content and Google crawlers
On a news website we have a system where articles are given a publish date which is often in the future. The articles were showing up in Google before the publish date despite us not being able to find them linked from anywhere on the website. I've added a 'noindex' meta tag to articles that shouldn't be live until a future date. When the date comes for them to appear on the website, the noindex disappears. Is anyone aware of any issues doing this - say Google crawls a page that is noindex, then 2 hours later it finds out it should now be indexed? Should it still appear in Google search, News etc. as normal, as a new page? Thanks. 🙂
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Alex-Harford0