Why aren't all my product collection pages appearing in Google search results?

[KattyS]

Hello, 

I've got the problem with indexing Collection pages with pagination. Only the last page of products collection is visible in Google index. Others are not indexable.

For example, 

https://mysite.com/collections/collection-name is not in Google Index (as well as pages from 2nd to 3rd)

though

https://mysite.com/collections/collection-name?page=4 (the last page of products collections) is in Google Index

And this problem appears for ALL productions collection that have pages with pagination

(URLs in canonical tags are self-referring)

So, the question is there any solution to make the other pages appear in Google search results? Maybe the liquid file for collections should updated/edited? Or anything else?

Thanks

[Josh_Uebergang]

That is unusual.

There are many factors that go into what page gets indexed. The rel canonical tag is a suggestion so it doesn't guarantee what you specify is will be what Google chooses.

Without seeing the URL, it hard to advise. You can walk through Google's guide on canonicalization to begin https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/consolidate-duplicate-urls 

[flareAI]

Hello @KattyS,

Greetings! I am Gina from the flareAI app helping Shopify merchants get $5Million+ in sales from Google Search, on autopilot.

There are several potential reasons why your collection pages with pagination may not be indexed by Google. Here are some solutions that may help:

1. Check if the pages are blocked by the robots.txt file: Make sure that the pages are not blocked by the robots.txt file, which tells search engine crawlers which pages to crawl and index. If you have accidentally blocked the collection pages in the robots.txt file, remove the blockage and resubmit the sitemap to Google.

2. Use rel="prev" and rel="next" tags: The rel="prev" and rel="next" tags are used to indicate to search engines that a series of pages should be treated as a single entity. By including these tags in the header of your collection pages, you can signal to Google that the pages should be indexed as a series, rather than as individual pages.

3. Increase the number of products displayed per page: If you are currently displaying a small number of products per page, try increasing this number. This will reduce the number of pages in your collection and may make it more likely that Google will index them.

4. Optimize the content on the pages: Make sure that the content on the pages is unique and valuable to users. Use descriptive and relevant titles and meta descriptions, and include high-quality images and product descriptions.

5. Build high-quality backlinks to the pages: Building high-quality backlinks to your collection pages can help to increase their visibility in search results. Reach out to relevant websites and request links to your collection pages.

6. Use canonical tags: Canonical tags are used to tell search engines which version of a page is the preferred one. Make sure that the canonical tags on your collection pages are correctly set to the main page to avoid duplicate content issues.

By implementing these solutions, you should be able to improve the indexing of your collection pages with pagination and make them visible in Google search results.

Gina

[MauricioSordill]

Hello, I'm wondering here if you were able to identify the issue. How did you fixed this error. I'm having the same problem and it's not related to canonicals. 

[Victor_bustos]

"It's very disappointing that no one has replied with a solution, and many merchants who are not very knowledgeable are facing the same problem. It has been ongoing for a while now. Why hasn't Shopify addressed this issue? Are they concerned about their merchants or what could happen? How much longer will we have to wait for a fix to the pagination issue? Another 10 years?"

[MauricioSordill]

Hello Victor, the problem with my website was a that one of our developers, installed a fallback that was preventing google to cache our pages. It was not an issue with Shopify. You can type in your browser: cache:"websitedomain" and try to see if Google is caching, if not there's something wrong. Double check with your dev team. 

[Victor_bustos]

Maybe you are talking about another problem, but I have already tested all the free themes, and they all have the same issue, which is well-known. Old posts mention it.

 - https://community.shopify.com/c/ecommerce-marketing/seo-tip-easy-pagination-fix/td-p/1318605