Can't Deactivate ABUS page?

[afiumano]

We aren't using the ABUS page in the admin interface as a forward facing page. Somehow this page has gotten on Google's radar so I'd like to deactivate it or remove it. However, there is no "Active" checkbox and if I try to delete it, I get "Page 'ABUS' is required by the User Interface and cannot be removed." I tried setting up a URI 301 redirect but it is saying that that URI is already in use.

[Nick]

afiumano The ABUS is a core merchant page and can not be removed.

How is it that you setup the 301 Redirect? If the URI is used on another page then you can't redirect that URI. When selecting the redirect button you should use the Move URI redirect type. Then when the URI is moved you can change it to a 301 Redirect.

Another option would be to add a <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> to the page so that it is not indexed.

[afiumano]

I tried setting up the redirect for the ABUS page by going to the ABUS page, clicking "Edit Global URI's". Then I tried adding type "301 Redirect to Canonical" to the page I wanted. But like you said, the Canonical URI of the page I wanted to redirect to already exists, so it wouldn't let me.

From what I am reading about "Move URI" that is not what I want either. So I guess the meta is it - although we know google can ignore that... Thank you for your help.

[Nick]

afiumano If you are redirecting the ABUS URL then it should not be in use anywhere else.

Here are the steps,

1. Go to URI Managment > URIs
2. Search for ABUS and select the URI record
3. Update the Destination to be the page, product, category or direct URL
4. Update the Type to be a 301 Redirect to Canonical

This will move the ABUS URI to the location in the destination and set it as a 301 redirect so anytime the URI is visited they will be redirected to the destination.

[afiumano]

Hmm. That isn't working.

The URI is: /ABUS.html
I put the destination as the page I'd like it to go to.
Type: 301 Redirect to Canonical

The URL is showing up in our Google Search Console as: www.xxxx.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=ABUS.

[Nick]

afiumano can you submit a ticket so I can take a look at the redirect.

The merchant.mvc URI works for all pages regardless if they have a URI or not. The reason Google Search Console is getting that URI is because it is present on the site somewhere. The page is probably still accessible for Google bots and since it does not have a Miva URI then the canonical URI is probably the merchant.mvc URI. My suggestion would be to make sure that the page is not included in the sitemap and that the <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> or more specifically you can add <meta name="googlebot" content="noindex"> to block google from accessing the page.

[afiumano]

That is what is confusing in search console is I can't tell how it was found. The page is already not included in the sitemap via the "sitemap_exclude" item. I added the noindex meta. Google has selected a different canonical for the page - which is the correct one I wanted to redirect to. But I don't leave anything to chance when it comes to Google. That is why I wanted to just setup the redirect as a fail safe. I have submitted a ticket.