Common Shopify Indexation Issues and Fixes

What Indexation Means

Crawling vs Indexing

Crawling and indexing are both important parts of your shopify store’s visibility, but they aren’t interchangeable terms. Crawling is when Google accesses and reads website pages while indexing is when Google chooses to include pages in search results.

Pages that are crawlable aren’t always indexed because Google won’t index pages that it deems low value, duplicate, blocked, or not important.

Common Shopify Indexation Issues and Fixes

1. Important Pages are Set to Noindex

Pages that have a noindex tag won’t show up in search results. Even if you don’t add this tag, it could appear due to SEO apps, theme edits, custom code, and accidental setting changes.

Double check important products, collections, and articles to ensure they don’t have noindex tags. Remove the tag from any pages that you want to appear in Google. You should only leave noindex tags on pages that don’t belong in search results, such as duplicate content or content that doesn’t offer SEO value.

2. Robots.txt is Blocking Key Pages

Robots.txt, a text file that communicates with engine crawlers, could prevent Google from crawling some URLs. A few common causes are custom robots.txt edits, controlling too many URLs without checking the impact, and blocking product, collection, blog, or app-generated URLs.

To ensure this isn’t hurting your crawlability, review the Shopify robots.txt file and make sure important pages aren’t blocked. You can test key URLs in Google Search Console to confirm their indexed status.

3. Duplicate Product URLs

Sometimes, Shopify creates different URL paths for the same product. For example, “/products/product-name” and “/collections/collection-name/products/product-name” could be two links to one product.

Canonical tags can tell Google which URL is preferred, but it’s always a good idea to double check that those tags lead to the main product URL. To enhance Google’s understanding of your site structure, link internally to the main product URL whenever it makes sense. Don’t create duplicate product pages unless it’s necessary.

4. Thin Product Pages

Google doesn’t index every page. If the page doesn’t have much unique content, it won’t appear in searches. Pages with one-line descriptions, manufacturer copy, no specifications, and/or no reviews may get overlooked by Google in favour of more detailed pages.

Strengthen your product pages by creating a unique, detailed product description on every page. Include benefits, use cases, materials, sizing, care instructions, FAQs, and reviews when relevant.

5. Collection Pages With Little Content

Collection pages can be extremely important for SEO, but many Shopify stores only show a product grid for collections. To enhance these pages, add short, helpful content wherever it’s relevant.

Explain what the collection includes, add a buying guide, and include FAQs if useful. Don’t forget to link to related products, collections, and guides throughout the text.

6. Filter and Faceted URLs

If your site has filters for aspects like size, colour, price, and material, Shopify may create low-value URL variations for those filters. In most cases, you’ll want to prevent these variations from being indexed. Proper collection pages are usually more valuable than filtered searches.

For example, creating a page specifically for “black leather jackets” will be more effective than relying on a similar filter URL. To ensure SEO-optimised pages get indexed instead of variations, use canonical tags when needed. 

7. Deleted or Out-of-Stock Products

If you have pages for removed or unavailable products, this can cause 404 error pages, lost rankings, and poor user experience. It’s okay to keep temporarily out-of-stock products, but include clear messaging.

For permanently discontinued products, redirect the pages to the most similar product when possible. Avoid linking all removed products to the home page because it’s confusing for both users and search engines.

8. Poor Internal Linking

Internal links help Google understand the hierarchy of your site and which pages are important. Poor internal linking can make it harder for search engines to discover your important pages.

For strong internal linking, follow these approaches:

• Link to important collections on the menu
• Link to products on relevant collections
• Link blog articles to related products and collections
• Add related product or related article sections

9. Sitemap Issues

Shopify creates sitemaps automatically, but you should still double check them. Submit the sitemap in Google Search Console to improve crawl efficiency. Confirm that important products, collections, blogs, and pages are included, and review the URLs that Google Search Console excludes.

How to Diagnose the Problem

Use Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a great tool for getting to the root of the problem because it offers data directly from Google’s crawler. On Google Search Console, check these reports for your Shopify site:

• Crawled but not indexed
• Discovered but not indexed
• Duplicate without user-selected canonical
• Alternate page with proper canonical tag
• Blocked by robots.txt
• Excluded by noindex tag

Run a Site Crawl

Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, Semrush, and Ahrefs are a few tools that can run a site crawl, which browses your website page by page to find issues. When using these tools, look for:

• Noindex tags
• Canonical tags
• Broken links
• Redirects
• Thin pages
• Blocked URLs
• Missing internal links

Which Pages Should Usually Be Indexed?

Usually Index

You should typically allow these pages to be indexed:

• Key product pages
• Key collection pages
• Blog articles
• Buying guides
• About page
• Contact page
• Shipping and returns pages
• High-value landing pages

Usually Noindex or Control Carefully

These pages should usually have a noindex tag:

• Cart pages
• Checkout pages
• Account pages
• Internal search pages
• Duplicate filter URLs
• Low-value tag pages
• Temporary campaign pages

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Even the best Shopify sites can run into unexpected indexation issues, so here are some common mistakes to be aware of:

• Accidentally having noindex tags on important pages
• Blocking important URLs with robots.txt
• Deleting products without adding redirects
• Creating too many similar collection pages
• Wasting crawls on too many filter URLs
• Using manufacturer descriptions for product pages
• Ignoring Google Search Console warnings
• Assuming all pages should get indexed

Quick Shopify Indexation Checklist

To help you improve your Shopify site’s indexation, here’s a helpful checklist to follow:

• Check Google Search Console reports
• Submit your Shopify sitemap to Google Search Console
• Inspect URLs for key product and collection pages
• Delete accidental noindex tags
• Review robots.txt rules
• Check canonical tags
• Add relevant details to thin product and collection content
• Control low-value filter URLs
• Redirect discontinued products to similar products
• Add more internal linking when relevant

Enhance Your Shopify Site with Indexation Strategies

Shopify indexation issues typically stem from blocked pages, noindex tags, duplicate URLs, thin content, incorrect redirects, and/or poor internal linking. By checking these aspects of your site and making adjustments as needed, you can improve your site’s visibility.

Not every page requires indexing, but importation pages like key products, collections, and articles should be easy for search engines to find, crawl, and understand. With everything in place, Google will be more likely to trust and index your pages.