metafields instead of product description

[gp-oliver]

Hey there!  I'm trying to figure out if it's advisable from an SEO point of view to use metafields to populate a product description on the website instead of the actual description itself?

Here's how I would do it:  Use a short description (1 or 2 sentence max) above the buy button and then the longer, actual description in a "details" section.  I can easily accomplish this with a couple of meta fields and hiding the "product description" block in the editor.  I'm not going to delete the descriptions from the actual products...I need those for another sales channel...but wondering if hiding them and replacing with a couple of metafields on the actual website would do harm.

Would this hurt seo?  I imagine no as all the information is still on the page but not sure. 

[MooseDesk]

Hi @gp-oliver ,

Thanks for reaching out to the community. This is MooseDesk - All-in-one Shopify Ticketing System App

Metafields can be useful for storing additional product information, but relying solely on them for the primary product description may not be the best practice for several reasons:

1. Indexing and Ranking: Search engines tend to prioritize content that is readily available in the main HTML of a page. If your primary product description is hidden and not easily accessible in the source code, search engines may not give it as much weight in their ranking algorithms. Check this link for more details

2. User Experience: While you may have a good reason for wanting to hide the product description, it's essential to consider the user experience. Visitors to your website may expect to see a detailed product description near the buy button. If they don't find it easily, it could lead to a less favorable user experience.
3. Keyword Visibility: If you have important keywords within your product descriptions, they should be directly visible to search engines. Hiding them may not give you the same SEO benefit.

A better approach is to keep the primary product description in the "product description" field and, if needed, use metafields to store additional information or details. You can style the "product description field" to make it visually appealing and maintain good UX.

If this is helpful for you, please let me know by giving me a 'LIKE'. If your question is answered please mark this as 'SOLUTION’.

Thank you for reading. Wish you nice day ahead

MooseDesk - All-in-one Shopify Ticketing System App

[ldavinci]

Hi @gp-oliver, did you manage to get an answer eventually? Am also doing the same and suspect my SEO rankings drop somewhat so Im wondering if the replacing of info from main "Description" section to Front End meta fields is causing any issues. 

@MooseDesk even if the info is frontend (and not hidden backend) metafields , will this still affect google crawling? 

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks all!

[SEOAnt-Jeffery]

Hi @gp-oliver

I have collected some Google SEO Advice for metafields including meta title and meta description, please kindly note them below properly and hope they can give you some ideas here. Thank you.

For Meta Title:

1. The focus keyword should appear in the meta title.

2. The target keyword should be included in the meta title.

3. The length of the Meta title should be between 50-70 characters.

4. Consecutive spaces are not recommended in the meta title.

For Meta Description:

1. The target keyword should be included in the meta description.

2. The page URL should contain the target keyword and only appear once.

3. Meta description should be between 120-200 characters.

4. Consecutive spaces are not recommended in the meta description.

If you need further help from SEO APP, you can also click here to install SEOAnt, and we provide SEO Suggestions while editing metafields. Currently, the 30% discount, SEOAnt 30% Jeffery, for the first two months is also provided; you can feel free to test and follow the advice properly to boost your page performance.