The Google Search Console and Structured Data Testing Tool help monitor and maintain a storefront's position for search engines. Using these tools with your storefront will identify potential errors and warnings that affect the health and rank of the store's search engine optimization (SEO). With the Shopify platform and Pixel Union themes, there are some alerts that require action and others that can be dismissed. Here's a rundown of what to look out for.
Using Google's testing tools
There are two tools used to monitor the rich search results of your Shopify store.
Google Search Console
It is standard for any online store to make use of the Google Search Console (GSC) to submit, track, and identify areas for improvement for a store's search engine ranking. First verify your store with GSC by following these steps.
Learn more about Google Search Console
Between these two, the GSC provides the widest scope of a storefront's health in terms of SEO. The data used by this tool is based on how the store has been indexed, so information presented may be from weeks or moths before, when the last time the storefront was crawled by Google.
Structured Data Testing Tool
A common tool to pair with the GSC is Google's Structured Data Testing Tool (SDTT). Using both the GSC and this tool allows for a well-rounded view of potential errors and warnings that could affect your ranking.
Learn more about Structured Data Testing Tool
The SDTT can provide a more immediate report of errors and warnings. Use this tool to compare to the results provided by GSC to get the best sense of what actions are needed.
Errors and warnings
Errors and warnings may appear similar in terms of urgency, but this is not the case—errors are much more important than warnings. Errors indicate that crucial information is missing from the live storefront, while warnings suggest areas for improvement that can increase rank in search engines. If errors were bills to pay, then warnings would be like investments—they can be made, but the bills are priority and the key concern.
Troubleshooting errors
There have been consistent improvements for Pixel Union themes over time to keep up with the rich results requirements provided by Google. The first step to address any errors that appear in your testing tools would be to update to the latest release of the theme:
How to update your Shopify theme
Checking your theme's version number
Common errors and warnings
robots.txt
A common alert seen in GSC is "Indexed, though blocked by robots.txt."
The robots.txt is controlled by the platform and not the theme.
Contact Shopify Support for more information on this platform limitation.
AggregateOffer
Required (Errors)
- lowPrice
- priceCurrency
Actions to remedy:
- Update to the latest version
- If using the latest version, check for modifications to the files containing the code for product prices. Theme files can be reverted to their original state by selecting an option under Older versions
Recommended (Warnings):
- highPrice
- offerCount
Either instance of these warnings can be dismissed.
Offer
Required (Errors):
- availability
- price
- priceCurrency
Actions to remedy:
- Update to the latest version
- If using the latest version, check for modifications to the files containing the code for inventory and price. Also check the Store Currency formatting by going to Settings > General > Store Currency > Change formatting
Recommended (Warnings):
- itemOffered
- priceValidUntil
- url
Any of these three warnings can be dismissed.
BreadcrumbList
Required (Errors):
- itemListElement
Actions to remedy:
Product
Required (Errors):
- image
- name
Actions to remedy:
- Make sure your products each have at least one image added via the Products admin
- Update to the latest version
- If using the latest version, check for modifications to the files containing the code for product image and title
- If an app is integrated and works directly with title or images, contact their support to confirm their code changes have not affected the theme code for the title or images
Recommended (Warnings):
- aggregateRating
- brand
- description
- offers
- review
- gtin8 | gtin13 | gtin14 | mpn | isbn
- sku
Which warnings can be resolved:
- brand can be resolved by including Vendor labels for your products
- description can be resolved by including a description for your products
- review can be resolved by integrating the Shopify Product Reviews app
- sku can be resolved by adding SKU numbers to your products and variants
As of May 2024, the Product Reviews app will no longer be available to Shopify merchants
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