If you're unable to edit the search engine listing for a custom meta object or any page where the boxes for the title tag or meta description are greyed out, this may be a limitation within the Shopify platform, particularly if the objects or pages are not standard Shopify entities such as products, collections, blog posts, or pages.
Here's a step-by-step guide to help you address the issue:
1. **Understand Meta Object Limitations**: Standard Shopify meta fields for SEO are often tied to native Shopify objects and might not be directly editable for custom objects or templates you create.
2. **Workaround With Liquid**: If you have created a custom meta object and a corresponding landing page, you might have to use Liquid, Shopify's templating language, to add SEO tags manually. You can add your title and meta description within the HTML `<head>` section using something like this:
```liquid
<title>{{ page_title }}</title>
<meta name="description" content="{{ page_description }}">
```
And then set the `page_title` and `page_description` variables dynamically on the page that renders the meta object.
3. **Create an Alternative Page**: If editing via Liquid is not an option or doesn't work, consider creating a standard Shopify page for your landing page instead of using a custom meta object. This way, you can use Shopify's built-in SEO features.
4. **Use a SEO App**: There are several SEO apps available in the Shopify App Store that can provide more control and features than the standard Shopify SEO settings. These apps might offer the ability to edit meta tags for custom objects or templates.
5. **Edit Theme Files**: For an advanced solution, if you're comfortable editing your theme's code, you can directly insert meta tags into your theme's HTML files. Always create a duplicate of your theme before doing this to avoid accidental loss of functionality.
6. **Check App Interference**: If you've installed any SEO or page builder apps, they might be interfering with your ability to edit the SEO fields. Check if an app has changed permissions or added its code that's preventing editing.
7. **Caching Issues**: Sometimes, the browser cache or Shopify's own caching mechanisms can cause display issues in the admin. Attempt to refresh the page, log out and log back in, or use a different browser to see if the problem persists.
It could also be a Google thing:
Google may sometimes override the title tags and meta descriptions that website owners set, opting instead to generate its own. This can happen for a few reasons:
1. **Relevance**: Google generates title and descriptions that its algorithms determine to be more relevant to the user's search query. The intention is to provide the best match and most helpful preview of the page content.
2. **Length**: If the set title or description is too long, Google might truncate it or rewrite it to ensure that it fits within the search results display limits.
3. **Quality**: Google might choose not to use the provided title tag or meta description if they’re deemed low quality, such as being stuffed with keywords or not being descriptive enough of the page content.
4. **Content Matching**: If a title or description isn't a good representation of the content on the page or doesn’t contain the keywords that the user searched for, Google may pull a snippet from the page content that it believes better matches the user’s search intent.
Hope that helps!
Dave Burnett | AOKMarketing.com | 888-566-2577 x 222| db@aokmg.com |
