I am working on my website SEO and I have completed a website audit - The issue I am having is that my site is being marked down in search engines because it believes there are duplicate descriptions. I have figured out why this is - I have a couple of collection pages that extend to a 2nd page due to the volume of products in the collection. I believe shopify must be automatically copying across the SEO from the initial collection page, but the search engines don’t like the duplication associated with a 2nd URL for example /collections/dell & /collections/dell?page=2 . I have tried to find a way around this, but so far haven’t had much luck. Is there somewhere that I can edit the SEO for the 2nd page seperately? Is there a way to change the pagination for the page to be an endless scroll thus getting rid of the 2nd page url altogether? Does anyone have any other fixes for this? I also don’t currently have any budget to spend fixing this, so i will need to do it myself.
Topic summary
A Shopify store owner is experiencing SEO penalties due to duplicate content issues on paginated collection pages. Search engines flag /collections/dell and /collections/dell?page=2 as having identical descriptions, negatively impacting rankings.
Root Cause:
Shopify automatically applies the same SEO metadata to all paginated pages within a collection, creating duplication.
Proposed Solutions:
- Canonical Tags: Verify that Shopify’s automatic canonical tags correctly point paginated pages back to the main collection URL
- Infinite Scroll/Load More: Eliminate pagination URLs entirely by implementing infinite scrolling through theme customization
- Robots.txt Blocking: Prevent indexing of paginated URLs by adding
Disallow: /collections/*?page=*to the robots.txt.liquid file - Dynamic Meta Descriptions: Customize descriptions to include page numbers, though this requires theme-level coding
Status:
The discussion remains open with no budget available for professional development assistance. All solutions require manual implementation by the store owner.
Hi @Jamm21Jess
To fix SEO duplication on your second collection page in Shopify:
1-Canonical Tags: Shopify automatically includes canonical tags on paginated collection pages. Verify that canonical tags point to the main collection URL (e.g., /collections/dell) to prevent search engines from treating /collections/dell?page=2 as duplicate content.
2-Meta Descriptions: You cannot directly edit SEO meta descriptions for paginated pages. Instead:
- Use dynamic text in the description, mentioning the page number (e.g., “Explore Page 2 of Dell Products”).
- Implement this via theme customization or hire a Shopify developer if necessary.
3-Infinite Scroll or Load More: Switching to infinite scroll removes the need for a second URL:
- Modify your theme to implement infinite scrolling or a “Load More” button.
- This requires coding knowledge but is achievable with online tutorials.
4-Robots.txt Adjustment: Block pagination URLs (/collections/?page=) from being indexed:
- Edit your robots.txt.liquid file (available in Shopify’s Online Store themes) to disallow these URLs:
Disallow: /collections/?page=
5-Alternative Fix: Minimize visible duplication:
- Ensure varied product arrangements or unique text per paginated page to differentiate them.
These methods are low-cost and can be implemented manually.
If you have other questions, feel free to ask, and I will answer them as well.
Best regards,
Daisy