Shopify SEO SOS: Untangling Confused Product Listings in Google Search Console

Help! Google Thinks My Wood Stove is a BBQ!

Hey everyone, I was browsing the Shopify Community forums the other day and stumbled across a really common issue that I thought we could unpack together. A user named Mhardware posted about a problem they were having with Google Search Console, and it sounded super frustrating. Basically, Google was getting confused and listing the wrong products for certain search terms. It was showing a wood stove when it should have been a wood pellet BBQ, and generally causing chaos with their indexing.

Mhardware wrote:

Hello, I’m having trouble with google search console.

I’m not very technical, so I don’t understand a lot of computer talk.

After getting my site up on google search console and waiting for it to do its work. I went back and over half my pages are not indexed. I have apx 1,100 pages total. Some I looked into and are old versions of a product, or collections that don’t exist anymore. So thats fine I can just leave those alone.

My issue is the 403 pages that have Alternate page with proper canonical tag. Some pages seem to be correct like a different variation on a product.

However I have some listings I have issues with.

Some products are being listed as others, see the screen shot. A wood stove is being confused with a wood pellet bbq.

How do I fix this?

This is what Mhardware was seeing:

Decoding the "Alternate page with proper canonical tag" Message

The "Alternate page with proper canonical tag" message in Google Search Console can be a bit misleading. It doesn't always mean there's a problem, but it does mean Google has noticed multiple URLs pointing to the same content. This is where canonical tags come in. They tell Google which URL is the *main* one, the one you want indexed. As tim_1 pointed out in the forum, the message itself isn't necessarily an error:

It is just notification from Google – "listen, when looking at your Trager Ranger page I’ve discovered this link, but it points to a page on your site which is already indexed, so I would not put this exact URL into my index".

This is what you have canonicals are for.
It is absolutely fine as long as your canonical pages are indexed (and this one is.)

However, the fact that Google is confusing entirely different products suggests something *is* wrong in Mhardware's case.

Troubleshooting the Product Mix-Up: A Step-by-Step Guide

So, how do you fix this? Here’s a breakdown of the steps you can take, combining advice from the forum discussion:

1. Check Your Product SEO Settings

   Eric-HAN suggested the first thing to do is double-check your product SEO settings within Shopify. Look at the "Search engine listing preview" section for each product. Click "Edit website SEO" and make sure the URL handle at the bottom is unique and correct for each product. This is crucial!

2. Investigate Your Theme Code

   Eric-HAN also mentioned the possibility of hardcoded canonical tags in the theme. This is a bit more technical, but worth investigating. Look for code like this in your theme files (you might need a developer for this):

   If you find a canonical tag that's pointing to the wrong product page, that's your culprit! Remove or correct it.

3. Understand URL Parameters

   Tim_1 pointed out that extra URL parameters (like ?pr_prod_strat=e5_desc&pr_rec_id=fa1645412&pr_rec_pid=7831802544357&pr_ref_pid=7831815061733&pr_seq=uniform) can create duplicate content issues. These parameters are often used for recommended products or tracking, but Google sees them as different URLs. While you can't completely stop Google from crawling these, ensuring your canonical tags are correct will tell Google which URL to prioritize.

4. Monitor and Refine

   SEO is an ongoing process. After making these changes, keep an eye on your Google Search Console reports to see if the errors are resolving. It can take time for Google to re-crawl and re-index your site.

Crawling Budget Considerations

One thing tim_1 mentioned is "crawl budget." This is the number of pages Googlebot will crawl on your site within a given timeframe. Extra URLs, even if they're canonicalized, can eat into your crawl budget, potentially slowing down the indexing of new or updated content. It's not the end of the world, but it's something to be aware of.

It sounds like Geoffy had a similar experience, and found that cleaning up the obvious mismatches helped indexing overall. It's definitely a process of elimination.

So, in Mhardware's case (and maybe yours!), it sounds like a combination of checking those product SEO settings, digging into the theme code for rogue canonical tags, and understanding how URL parameters affect indexing is the way to go. It might seem daunting, but taking it one step at a time can really make a difference. Good luck!