How to prevent filter tags from appearing in Google search results dawn theme

[houseofviraasi]

Hey upon google search of my website, the filter tags I use in shopify to segregate my products and collections are showing up on google search. earlier my collections used to show up. 

Anyone knows how to fix this or why this is happening? my website is  https://houseofviraasi.com/

[WizzCommerce_Co]

Hi @houseofviraasi , thank you for posting here!

The issue of filter tags appearing in Google search results instead of your collections likely occurs because Shopify generates URLs for your filter tags, and Google is indexing these URLs. This can happen due to a lack of control over how search engines are crawling and indexing these tag URLs. Here’s how you can fix it:

1. Prevent Filter Tags from Being Indexed

You can use the robots.txt.liquid file in Shopify to block search engines from indexing these tag URLs. To do this:

1. Go to Online Store > Themes > Actions > Edit Code.
2. Search for the robots.txt.liquid file.
3. Add a directive to disallow the tag URLs:

   User-agent: *
   Disallow: /collections/*?*tag=

4. Save the file.

This tells search engines not to index URLs containing ?tag=.

2. Use Canonical Tags

Ensure that your Shopify collections have proper canonical tags that point to the primary collection URL. Shopify typically generates these automatically, but you can check them:

1. Go to your Online Store > Themes > Actions > Edit Code.
2. Open the collection.liquid file or any relevant layout file.
3. Look for the canonical tag:

   <link rel="canonical" href="{{ collection.url }}">

4. If missing or incorrect, add or fix it to ensure Google recognizes the main collection URL.

3. Update Google Search Console

Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console to help it understand which pages you want indexed:

1. Go to Google Search Console > Index > Sitemaps.
2. Enter the sitemap URL for your store (e.g., https://yourstore.com/sitemap.xml).
3. Request a recrawl for your site.

4. Check and Update Internal Linking

Ensure that your internal links (menus, breadcrumbs, etc.) link directly to the collection pages instead of filtered/tagged URLs.

• Go to Online Store > Navigation and review your menus.
• Replace any filtered/tagged URLs with the main collection URLs.

5. Request Removal of Indexed Tags

For any tag URLs already indexed, use Google’s URL Removal Tool to request their removal:

1. Go to Google Search Console > Index > Removals.
2. Use the Temporary Removals tab to submit the unwanted URLs for removal.

6. Ensure Tag URLs Are No-Indexed

If you can’t prevent tag URLs from being created, you can add a noindex meta tag to these pages:

1. Go to Themes > Actions > Edit Code.
2. Find the relevant template file generating the tag URLs, such as collection.liquid.
3. Add the noindex meta tag for pages with tags:

   {% if current_tags %}
   <meta name="robots" content="noindex">
   {% endif %}

4. Save the changes.

Please press 'Like' and mark it as 'Solution' if you find it helpful. Thank you.

[houseofviraasi]

hey, 

thank you so so much. @WizzCommerce_Co 

1. I did the first step of adding the code in end of robots.txt.liquid file.

2. I have collection.json - can I add this code here or no? sorry I just migrated to dawn theme

<link rel="canonical" href="{{ collection.url }}">

 4. I can't find breadcrumbs? although all my menus link to a collection or page nothing with filters. I updated other again just in case.

5. Can I add this too in collection.json

{% if current_tags %}
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">
{% endif %}

[houseofviraasi]

Hi @Margaret_616 Thanks for your reply. 

where do I find the filter tag pages?

this is happening from my collection page as far as I can see