How do you prevent templates from being indexed/listed?

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

I would think so, yes. The category page should not have a URI, because it makes no sense to view it except when a specific category is requested. So the categories have URIs, not the page template.

When you enter that generic URL into your browser, what do you see?

When I go to the CTGY page in admin and click the View button, I get an empty category page. It has a header and footer but no content: no products or subcategories.

Not sure about all sites but everyone of 6 show top level cats with /mm5/merchant.mvc>Screen=CTGY
Also tested, those with URIs populated CANNOT BE removed. You have to block bot access in some other way...

[lesliekirk]

I would think so, yes. The category page should not have a URI, because it makes no sense to view it except when a specific category is requested. So the categories have URIs, not the page template.

When you enter that generic URL into your browser, what do you see?

When I go to the CTGY page in admin and click the View button, I get an empty category page. It has a header and footer but no content: no products or subcategories.

I see the page that Google has indexed. It looks very much like any other page on the website, Global Header, Global Footer, cattree and the sub-category display. But I went to see what canonical link it has and it shows this:

<link rel="canonical" href="" itemprop="url">

All removing the Canonical URI from the template URI and then click the Preview Icon just pulls the template up with the long style link https://www.domain.com/Merchant2/mer...vc?Screen=CTGY and the canonical href is still empty. You would think it would have something in it:

<mvt:if expr="'CTGY' CIN l.settings:page:code">
<link rel="canonical" href="&mvte:category:link;" itemprop="url">
<mvt:elseif expr="'PROD' CIN l.settings:page:code OR l.settings:page:code EQ 'PATR'">
<link rel="canonical" href="&mvt:product:link;" itemprop="url">
<mvt:elseif expr="'blog' CIN l.settings:page:code">
<mvt:else>
<link rel="canonical" href="&mvte:urls:_self:auto;" itemprop="url">
</mvt:if>

[alphabet]

I agree with Kent but just want to add to first double check with the domain's Google Search Console to see if there are any internal or external links pointing to the /CTGY.html page.

If so, you should fix the internal links pointing to /CTGY.html and if the external links have any SEO value (doubtful) then create a redirect uri.

Otherwise just delete the uri.

[colin]

Do you use the marketing feed to generate a sitemap? If so, is "Include pages in the sitemap" checked?

[lesliekirk]

Do you use the marketing feed to generate a sitemap? If so, is "Include pages in the sitemap" checked?

As previously mentioned - no.