Shopify Product Meta Titles and Descriptions Not Showing On Google

[LaniakeaMagic]

Hello! 

So, I am able to search and find many of my products on Google. However, even nearly a week after updating meta titles and descriptions, and after requesting re-indexing, I am still seeing the old meta titles and meta descriptions. I tried changing the actual Shopify titles of a few products, and Google captured that right away. But it seems to not detect any meta titles/descriptions. I can see in Google Search console that my site map was last crawled today, Dec. 17th. Does crawling = indexing/updating? Could someone help clarify this for me? And let me know if there are any Shopify or Google bugs before I waste time updating the meta information for the other few hundred listings? Is it acutally worth my time to do that? Thanks!

[claricelin]

Hi @LaniakeaMagic 

Crawling does not equate to indexing/updating on Google search results. After Google has crawled, it goes into their queue and they will proceed to update their database depending on the priority of your site in their books. i.e. if your store has high authority and many visitors, they will tend to update their database and display your most updated content quicker.

There are no bugs. But if you are a new store with minimal to zero traffic, you have to be patient to wait for Google to reflect the latest updated title and meta description. You can expedite (a little) the process by requesting for individual pages indexing using Google Search Console. However, you have to do it one page at a go as they don't allow bulk requesting for this feature. There is an index submission limit of 10 pages every 24 hours. You can go to URL inspection tool, put in the URL and request for indexing.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Clarice

[LaniakeaMagic]

Thanks for your response, it is helpful! Ok, so now I see that Google has indexed hundreds of product pages as of today. However, I see do not see SEO Page Title and Meta Descriptions changed on google. It still shows the old ones. Should I see the updated meta titles/descriptions on the Indexed pages? Or will it still take time for the changes to show, even after crawing and indexing? Is there a way to see with certainty in Google Search Console whether it has updated the page metadata? I have just been searching my website meta titles/descriptions using :site on google search. I see where one product meta description was updated, but none of my titles or other descriptions seem to be.

Thanks to all responders! 

[claricelin]

Under URL inspection, you can check for last crawled date. If the date is earlier than the last change you made, then you probably can resubmit a new request for indexing due to the changes you made.

Usually it will take a couple of weeks to see the changes.

[LaniakeaMagic]

I made changes before the most recent crawls and index and they are still not reflected. Any reason why that would be?

[claricelin]

You probably need to re-request again. Sometimes if you make too many minute changes within a certain period of time, Google is unable to detect that and might not necessarily re-update their copy again.

This happens more typically for new sites that do not have much traffic as Google is more likely to retain their resources for bigger sites.