Shopify has a new bug - they are indexing tons of useless pages in Google again. Is there any way to stop this from happening? The code seems to only be editable by shopify since it's in the content_for_header.
Do a google search for:
inurl:/web-pixels-manager@
(https://www.google.com/search?q=inurl%3A%2Fweb-pixels-manager%40)
Each site has multiple versions of this page indexed. Peets.com for example has 20.
The pages look blank, but include something like this in the code:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>Web Pixels Manager Sandbox</title>
<script id="web-pixels-manager-setup">(function e(e,n,a,o,t){e&&(window.Shopify=window.Shopify||{},window.Shopify.analytics=window.Shopify.analytics||{},window.Shopify.analytics.replayQueue=[],window.Shopify.analytics.publish=function(e,n,a){window.Shopify.analytics.replayQueue.push([e,n,a])});var r,i,s,l,d,c,p,u,f=a+"/"+o+"."+function(){var e="legacy",n="unknown",a=null,o=navigator.userAgent.match(/(Firefox|Chrome)\/(\d+)/i),t=navigator.userAgent.match(/(Edg)\/(\d+)/i),r=navigator.userAgent.match(/(Version)\/(\d+)(.+)(Safari)\/(\d+)/i);r?(n="safari",a=parseInt(r[2],10)):t?(n="edge",a=parseInt(t[2],10)):o&&(n=o[1].toLocaleLowerCase(),a=parseInt(o[2],10));var i={chrome:60,firefox:55,safari:11,edge:80}[n];return void 0!==i&&null!==a&&i<=a&&(e="modern"),e}()+".js";r={src:f,async:!0,onload:function(){if(e){var a=window.webPixelsManager.init(e);n(a),window.Shopify.analytics.replayQueue.forEach((function(e){a.publishCustomEvent(e[0],e[1],e[2])})),window.Shopify.analytics.replayQueue=[],window.Shopify.analytics.publish=a.publishCustomEvent}},onerror:function(){var n=(e.storefrontBaseUrl?e.storefrontBaseUrl.replace(/\/$/,""):self.location.origin)+"/.well-known/shopify/monorail/unstable/produce_batch",a=JSON.stringify({metadata:{event_sent_at_ms:(new Date).getTime()},events:[{schema_id:"web_pixels_manager_load/2.0",payload:{version:t||"latest",page_url:self.location.href,status:"failed",error_msg:f+" has failed to load"},metadata:{event_created_at_ms:(new Date).getTime()}}]});try{if(self.navigator.sendBeacon.bind(self.navigator)(n,a))return!0}catch(e){}const o=new XMLHttpRequest;try{return o.open("POST",n,!0),o.setRequestHeader("Content-Type","text/plain"),o.send(a),!0}catch(e){console&&console.warn&&console.warn("[Web Pixels Manager] Got an unhandled error while logging a load error.")}return!1}},i=document.createElement("script"),s=r.src,l=r.async||!0,d=r.onload,c=r.onerror,p=document.head,u=document.body,i.async=l,i.src=s,d&&i.addEventListener("load",d),c&&i.addEventListener("error",c),p?p.appendChild(i):u?u.appendChild(i):console.error("Did not find a head or body element to append the script")})(null,null,"https://cdn.shopify.com/shopifycloud/web-pixels-manager/0.0.186","sandbox","0.0.186");</script>
</head>
<body></body>
</html>
Hi All,
We've spent the time to put together documentation on this issue, including the origin, the evolution, and the solution.
Definitive SEO Guide to Shopify's Web Pixel Manager Problem
The fix we implemented - initially posted here - has kept these pages out of the index and our rankings have been steady. The fix today, is different than it was then.
I'd be happy to answer specific questions and add them to the pages Frequently Asked Questions.
My impression is going bottom and I still don't have any idea to fix it. Since middle of march, my organic traffic has significantly dropped. Please advise me if u guys have any idea to solve this.
No Index Tag: 700> 11,000 since Mid Mar
Canonical tag: 5000> 13000 since Mid Mar
@kbarcant wrote:Right now these pages are no different than any other non-existent page on your site, google only thinks they existed because of internal links from product pages - those links have been fixed. Now that the internal links have been removed google will no longer see those pages as pages you claim to be part of your website. "
Checked today. These links are being picked up from the iframe:
@Greg-Bernhardt Once Google updated in GSC, the indexed pages will update. The no index tag on these wpm@ pages no effect for Google. Why Shopify could not stop the code to produce such pages???
1) Block Indexing of These Files on Your Site
In your Shopify, browse to Online Store -> Themes and click on the 3 dots beside your template and search for Edit Code.
In the theme editor, search for robots.txt.liquid and add to the bottom:
Disallow: /web-pixels-manager
2) Remove Indexed Pages from Google
Log into Google Webmasters (Search Console) and from the menu choose Indexing -> Removals.
Click the NEW REQUEST button.
Enter the following URL but replace example.com with your URL:
https://example.com/web-pixels-manager
Click "Remove all URLs with this prefix" and continue to submit the request.
^ Don't screw up the URL or you can end up deindexing all or portions of your site.
Hi,
URL Removal
Submitted requests
It starts with: https://dededus.net/web-pixels-manager
Temporarily removing the URL
Status: Temporarily removed
looks like. I hope everything is fine.
@Denny10 I followed the two steps I posted above for a client and it took a few days for the index to update but it's showing removed:
If your pages are still showing as "Indexed although blocked by robots.txt", that to me does indicate they are in the index and that perhaps the removal tool wasn't used or wasn't used correctly. You seem very knowledgeable so not sure what the issue would be there.
The temporary removal tool should remove them per the screenshot above.
After they are removed from the index "temporarily", either a noindex directive as you're suggesting, or a block in robots.txt as I've suggested above, would do the trick to keep them out of the index permanently.
Regarding crawl budget, Google checks the url pattern against robots.txt and avoids crawling all together if a disallow match is found, so robots.txt disallows do save crawl budget.
It was previously thought by many SEOs that noindex pages did use crawl budget because pages needed to be crawled in order to read the noindex directive, but John Mueller and Gary Illyes have stated that there's no amount of noindex pages that will negatively impact a websites crawl budget (Reference: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-noindexed-pages-do-not-impact-crawl-budget/472870/).
Either way then, should do the trick.
I have a few clients that have millions of pages so I do prefer robots.txt as I feel like it makes it faster for Google to crawl since it can avoid reading bad pages all together and I like to do everything I can to make Google's job easier.
I also haven't seen any native functionality in Shopify that makes noindexing these types of pages easy.
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