When your shop is set up, it is already technically ready for search engines. What depends on you is the text: the titles and descriptions Google shows in its results, and keeping the sitemap up to date.
Meta title and meta description
Every product, category and page has a Search Engine Optimization section with three fields:
| Field | What it is | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| URL Key | part of the web address | lower case, hyphens, no special characters (such as č, š, ž); do not change it after publishing unless you have to |
| Meta Title | the title in search results and in the browser tab | up to 60 characters, most important word first |
| Meta Description | the text below the title in search results | up to 160 characters, one or two sentences that invite the customer to click |
Catalog › Products › (product) › Search Engine Optimization
- URL Key
- Meta Title
- Meta Description
For a category, the same fields are in Catalog › Categories › Search Engine Optimization, and for a page in Content › Elements › Pages › Search Engine Optimization. You can leave Meta Keywords empty; Google ignores them.
Search engine robots (robots.txt)
Content › Design › Configuration › (website) › Edit › Search Engine Robots
- Default Robots - INDEX, FOLLOW for a live shop.
- Edit custom instruction of robots.txt File - extra rules for search engines.
- Default Robots must be INDEX, FOLLOW on a live shop. NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW blocks search engines from the whole shop; it is only used while the shop is being built.
- Edit custom instruction of robots.txt File contains rules about which paths search engines should not visit (cart, checkout, login). We set the content of this field for you; please do not change it without talking to us first.
Sitemap
The sitemap is a file listing all the addresses in your shop. Google reads it to find new products faster. You create the sitemap once; after that it updates itself.
Marketing › SEO & Search › Site Map
Click Add Sitemap. In Filename enter
sitemap.xml, in Path enter/, and under Store View choose the language.
- Filename - sitemap.xml (for a second language, for example sitemap-en.xml).
- Path - / means the root of the shop.
- Store View - the language whose addresses go into the sitemap.
- Save & Generate - saves and creates the file straight away.
Click Save & Generate. A row appears in the list with a Link for Google column; enter that address in Search Console under Sitemaps.
Create a separate sitemap with a different filename for each language.
Warnings in Search Console
| Warning | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Not found (404) | the page no longer exists (deleted or disabled product) | add a redirect (how) |
| Page with redirect | the address leads to another address | usually fine, no action needed |
| Crawled - currently not indexed | Google knows the page but does not show it | improve the description and meta data; it gets better over time |
| Duplicate without user-selected canonical | the same content at two addresses (filters, sorting) | if there are many such pages, write to us |
Common problems
Google shows an old title or description
Google refreshes its results with a delay of a day to a few weeks. In Search Console you can ask for the address to be checked again (URL Inspection › Request indexing).
New products are not in Google
Check that the sitemap has been refreshed (the Last Generated column) and is submitted in Search Console. Google finds a new product within a few days to a few weeks.