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SEO overview

Last update: Mon Jul 24 2023 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

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Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of fine-tuning the content and presentation of a site to improve the way the pages are indexed by search engines. Commerce includes various features to support your ongoing SEO effort.

Meta data

Learn more about adding and enhancing keyword-rich meta data for your site and store.

Using a sitemap

A site map improves the way that your store is indexed by search engines, and is designed to find pages that might be overlooked by web crawlers. A site map can be configured to index all pages and images.

URL rewrites

The URL Rewrite tool lets you change any URL that is associated with a product, category, or CMS page.

Search engine robots

The Commerce configuration includes settings to generate and manage instructions for web crawlers and bots that index your site. If the request for robots.txt reaches Commerce (rather than a physical file), it is dynamically routed to the robots controller. The instructions are directives that are recognized and followed by most search engines.

By default, the robots.txt file that is generated by Commerce contains instructions for web crawler to avoid indexing certain parts of the site that contain files that are used internally by the system. You can use the default settings, or define your own custom instructions for all, or for specific search engines. There are many articles online that explore the subject in detail.

Custom instructions example

Allows Full Access

User-agent:*
Disallow:

Disallows Access to All Folders

User-agent:*
Disallow: /

Default Instructions

User-agent: *
Disallow: /index.php/
Disallow: /*?
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /lib/
Disallow: /*.php$
Disallow: /pkginfo/
Disallow: /report/
Disallow: /var/
Disallow: /catalog/
Disallow: /customer/
Disallow: /sendfriend/
Disallow: /review/
Disallow: /*SID=

Configure robots.txt

  1. On the Admin sidebar, go to Content > Design > Configuration.

  2. Find the Global configuration in the first row of the grid and click Edit.

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    Global design configuration

  3. Scroll down and expand Expansion selector the Search Engine Robots section and do the following:

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    Design configuration - search engine robots

    • Set Default Robots to one of the following:

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      Option Description
      INDEX, FOLLOW Instructs web crawlers to index the site and to check back later for changes.
      NOINDEX, FOLLOW Instructs web crawlers to avoid indexing the site, but to check back later for changes.
      INDEX, NOFOLLOW Instructs web crawlers to index the site once, but to not check back later for changes.
      NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW Instructs web crawlers to avoid indexing the site, and to not check back later for changes.

    • If needed, enter custom instructions into the Edit Custom instruction of robots.txt file box. For example, while a site is in development, you might want to disallow access to all folders.

    • To restore the default instructions, click Reset to Default.

  4. When complete, click Save Configuration.

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