diff --git a/backend/src/controllers/v2/tagController.ts b/backend/src/controllers/v2/tagController.ts
index b737eb41a..199f2401e 100644
--- a/backend/src/controllers/v2/tagController.ts
+++ b/backend/src/controllers/v2/tagController.ts
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ import { Request, Response } from 'express';
 import * as Sentry from '@sentry/node';
 import { Types } from 'mongoose';
 import {
-	Membership,
+	Membership, Secret,
 } from '../../models';
 import Tag, { ITag } from '../../models/tag';
 import { Builder } from "builder-pattern"
@@ -54,6 +54,12 @@ export const deleteWorkspaceTag = async (req: Request, res: Response) => {
 
 	const result = await Tag.findByIdAndDelete(tagId);
 
+	// remove the tag from secrets
+	await Secret.updateMany(
+		{ tags: { $in: [tagId] } },
+		{ $pull: { tags: tagId } }
+	);
+
 	res.json(result);
 }
 
diff --git a/backend/src/models/secret.ts b/backend/src/models/secret.ts
index 4ac6c768d..463ed50fd 100644
--- a/backend/src/models/secret.ts
+++ b/backend/src/models/secret.ts
@@ -109,6 +109,9 @@ const secretSchema = new Schema<ISecret>(
 	}
 );
 
+
+secretSchema.index({ tags: 1 }, { background: true })
+
 const Secret = model<ISecret>('Secret', secretSchema);
 
 export default Secret;