How to Index Product Variants? - URL is not on Google - Google Search Console

[SaveMH]

Hello,

I was wondering what is the best practice or way to index product variants so they show up on Google.  This article (https://www.littlestreamsoftware.com/articles/shopify-product-variants-into-the-google-rich-snippets...) explains the situation a little bit, but I still don't know how to go about doing it.  Currently, Google states that the default url for the product variant is the canonical url so the url with the product variant "?variant=...." will not show up in Google.  Is there a best practice or way where the variant urls should show up on Google?

My store url: https://www.savemh.com/

Scenario:

We sell rolling ladders.  When someone searches for rolling ladders and we come up, they will only see the main product variant (2 Step Rolling Ladder)  instead of the the type/variant they are looking for (ex: 7 Step Rolling Ladder).  

 

[Neo_5678]

Right now Google search console disabled the request indexing feature. So it is not possible to do it manually!

Google will index it according to your website's crawl budget.

[PageFly-Victor]

Hi @SaveMH, 

From where I see it, there are two approaches you can try out: 

1. Since the goal here is to get as much exposure on Search engines as possible, is it possible to split each variant into separate products? That's way, you can rank for more product pages, and get more exposure - as long as the product variant pages are internal-linked together. 

2. If you opt for just a single product page, unfortunately, you can not rank for variants - however, you can add rich snippets to your product page show that it will show the variants in the Search Engine Result Page. Examples: 

There are a wide range of Rich snippets you can add to your product page, to add Rich Snippets, you can either use a paid Shopify App if you have a deep pocket, however, you can add it for free using Google Tag Manager. Basically the process goes like this: 

1. Use Schema Markup Generator to generate the codes for your Rich Snippet. After filling in the necessary information for the Snippet, you simply need to copy the codes in the box on your right. 

2. After that, using Google tag manager to, simply put, tag this code to your Product page. Done. If you're not familiar with Tag Manager, you can check out this tutorial from Google themselves. 

I hope you find my answers helpful, if it is, let me know with a Like or Thumb up. 

[SaveMH]

Making them all into their own separate products could be possible, just time consuming as there are a lot of variants.  I would still want customers to use the variant product page however, as it is a much easier buying process to select the variations. I guess it would be possible to create separate product pages for each variant and include a link to the variant page in the description so customers can view the product variation page.

So it seems that the best way to get products in search results would be:

1. Create separate products for each variation 
2. Turn off Google Shopping for these separate products
3. Create unique content and descriptions for each product and including a link to the variation product url

Also, I do have some structured data code JSOD-LN in place already that should help the rich results on product variation pages (from another Shopify Partner https://feedarmy.com/kb/shopify-microdata-for-google-shopping/).