Creating Meta Tags

mhromney75 — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:52:57 +0000

Hi Everyone, I have a couple questions about meta tags. (I don’t know much about HTML) I have been searching these forums trying to find a way to add Meta tags to my site. And I have found two possibilities Listed below: *First*

  {% case 'page_title' %}

{% when 'Welcome' %}
 <meta name="description" content="Description here" />
 <meta name="keywords" content="Keywords here" />

{% when 'Product-Foo' %}
 <meta name="description" content="{{ product.description }}" />
 <meta name="keywords" content="keywords here">

{% endcase %}

Posted by DanW (http://forums.shopify.com/categories/6/posts/8789#comment-8791)

I couldn’t get this one to work. *Second*

  {% if collection %}
  {% if collection.handle == "testcollection" %}
    <meta name="description" content="This is my testcollection">
  {% endif %}
or
{% if collection %}
  <meta name="keywords" content="{% for tag in collection.tags %}{{ tag }} {% endfor %}">
{% endif %}
Posted by daniel (http://forums.shopify.com/categories/1/posts/14404#comment-14540)

I couldn’t get this one to work the way I wanted so I had to modify it a little bit in order to get it to work see below.

{% if page.title != 'Shopify T-Shirt' %}
 <meta name="description" content="Description here" />
 <meta name="keywords" product content="{{">
{% endif %}  

http://svmountain.myshopify.com/products/shopify-t-shirt

After doing this however I realized that if I did it this way I would have to create a snippet of code for all of my 300 products. So after looking at this code for a bit (remember I am a novice so this isn’t as apparent to me as it may be to the rest of you) I realized that the Meta Keywords portion is dynamic. So I thought I can just put that in my theme.liquid and it will pull whatever tags are on my product pages and turn them into keywords. So that is what I did. See below

 <meta name="keywords" product content="{{">

http://www.survivalmountain.com/products/spot-satellite-messenger

So I added this but I have noticed that for any page on my site that is not a product page it has this snippet of code with no keywords. So I have a couple questions on this (example: http://www.survivalmountain.com/collections/food) 1.Does anyone know how to make this more dynamic? So if it is on a collection page it will display the tags for that page or if it is on the product page it will display the tags for that page. Maybe there is a universal tag command I can put in the content section and it will pick up whatever tags are associated with the page and turn them into keywords. 2. I have also noticed that other websites have both the Meta Keyword & Meta Description. Do I need both? Can I make the Meta Description Dynamic also?

mhromney75 commented

mhromney75 — Fri, 02 May 2008 19:15:01 +0000

Is there anyone out there that can help me on this?

leeann commented

leeann — Wed, 07 May 2008 05:46:32 +0000

I tried this code recently and it didn’t work. Does anyone have any advice on how I can install some meta tags on to my site that aren’t the same on each page? Any help would be appreciated.

Christina commented

Christina — Wed, 07 May 2008 12:28:54 +0000

First of all: there’s a difference between two variables that look very similar but that are actually quite different:

1) page.title (with the period):

this refers only to the title of a page.liquid template, e.g., the one that might be called “About-us”. There is no “page.title” variable that refers to the product, the collection, or any other template than page, so your code above, that starts {% if page.title != 'Shopify T-Shirt' %} would never work.

2) page_title (with the underscore):

this is a variable that refers to each template differently, as follows:

collection: the name of the collection currently shown (= collection.title)
product: the name of the product currently shown (= product.title)
page: the title of the page (= page.title)
blog: the title of the blog (not the article) (= blog.title)
index: the word ‘Welcome’
cart: the words ‘Your Shopping Cart’
search: the word ‘Search’

You can test this by temporarily putting the variable:

<h1>{{page_title}}</h1>

in a visible place in your theme.template, and navigating around your site to see how it changes.

So if you put {{page_title}} in your meta description, it will automatically give you the product titles, collection title and so on.

Now some code:

{% assign maxwords = 20 %}
{% assign indexblog = 'frontpage' %}

{% case template %}
    {% when 'collection' %}
        <meta name="description" content="{{page_title}}{% if collection.description.size > 0 %}: {{collection.description | strip_html | truncatewords:maxwords}}{% endif %}"/>
        <meta name="keywords" content= "{{collection.title}}{% if collection.tags.size > 0 %}: {{ collection.tags | join: ', ' }}{% endif %}" />
    {% when 'product' %}
        <meta name="description" content="{{page_title}}{% if product.description.size > 0 %}: {{product.description | strip_html | truncatewords:maxwords}}{% endif %}"/>
        <meta name="keywords" content="{{product.title}}{% if product.tags.size > 0 %}: {{ product.tags | join: ', ' }}{% endif %}">
    {% when 'page' %}
        <meta name="description" content="{{page_title}}: {{page.content | strip_html | truncatewords:maxwords}}"/>
        <meta name="keywords" content="{{page_title}}">
    {% when 'blog' %}
        <meta name="description" content="{{page_title}}"/>
        <meta name="keywords" content="{{page_title}}">
    {% else %}
        <meta name="description" content="{{shop.name}}{% if blogs.[indexblog].articles.size > 0 %}: {% for article in blogs.[indexblog].articles limit:1 %}{{ article.title }}: {{article.content | strip_html | truncatewords:maxwords}}{% endfor %}{% endif %}"/>
        <meta name="keywords" content= "{% for link in linklists.Main-Menu.links %}{% if link.type == 'collection_link' %}{{link.title}} {% endif %}{% endfor %}" />
{% endcase %}

Code explanation:

The above will give you the following results:

For the collection template:

Description: The title of the collection, followed by an excerpt of the collection description, if you’ve made one. Keywords: Collection title + tags for that collection.

For the product template:

Description: The product title, followed by an excerpt of the product description, if you have one. Keywords: Product title + tags for that product.

For the page template:

Description: The page title, followed by an excerpt of the page article. Keywords: Page title.

For the blog template:

Description: The blog title. Keywords: Blog title.
(this could be expanded somewhat, to include more specifics)

All other templates including index:

Description: The name of the shop, followed by an excerpt of the frontpage article. Keywords: A list of the shop collections that are in the Main Menu.

There are two variables you can change:

maxwords : to increase or decrease the number of words in the excerpts.

indexblog : which refers to a blog called ‘frontpage’. If your blog is called somwthing else, you can change that, without messing with the code.

Which you are otherwise free to mess with as you please, of course.

Though I actually think the <title> attribute is more important than the keywords. You can customize that in a very similar fashion.

mhromney75 commented

mhromney75 — Sat, 10 May 2008 00:59:25 +0000

Christina Thanks!!

This works great.

Christina commented

Christina — Mon, 26 May 2008 10:53:57 +0000

JohnG commented

JohnG — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 23:09:41 +0000

I was finally able to do this – almost. Pretty slick! Meta Descriptions work fine throughout except Keywords for my Index page. Comments say, “All other templates including index: Description: The name of the shop, followed by an excerpt of the frontpage article. Keywords: A list of the shop collections that are in the Main Menu.”

It is this latter part that is not visible. I tried to puzzle out, but could not. What did I miss?

Christina commented

Christina — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:35:02 +0000

Do you use the default menu provided by shopify? The one that’s called “Main Menu”? The above code assumes that; I shouldn’t have hard-coded that, but there you go.

If your collections are listed in a linklist that is called something else, then replace the handle “Main-Menu” in the last line above by the handle of your linklist, like this:

Instead of this:

<meta name="keywords" content= "{% for link in linklists.Main-Menu.links %}...

do this:

<meta name="keywords" content= "{% for link in linklists.your-linklist-name.links %}...

or maybe i should have set “main-menu” lowercase.

Anyway, try that & see. Tell me if it doesn’t work.

JohnG commented

JohnG — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:26:08 +0000

I think we are SOL. Our design uses hard coded links. See page source at: http://www.aplusenv.com/

So, I am wondering if your other Meta Tag code solution – http://forums.shopify.com/categories/6/posts/19827 – can be modified to handle Key Words?

I have played with the Meta Descriptions blog articles, etc. and it is perfect for my needs! I like it because it provides a lot more control over content.

Christina commented

Christina — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 11:32:18 +0000

hmm. what does SOL mean?

Looking at page source will not tell me whether something’s hard-coded or not, & I very much doubt it would be. That would be just too SOL for words.

In your admin → navigation, check what linklists you have, and then see which links connect to the collections. Put in the name of that linklist.

I’m glad you’re liking the metadescriptions blog solution. You could do that for keywords, too, make a new blog called, um, let’s see…”keywords” and change the code correspondingly, mutatis mutandis et cetera.

JohnG commented

JohnG — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 21:02:49 +0000

My admin → navigation shows no linklists, just:

Main Menu → Home

Footer → Home, Resources, Events, Classes, Contact Us, Privacy

None of which I want to use as Keywords

I am going to try to modify your metadescriptions blog solution for “keywords,” and since I have no idea what I am doing it should be …. um …. an adventure?

2.5 hours Later …

It was an adventure and it works! Thanks a bunch Christina!

Christina commented

Christina — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 03:04:57 +0000

congrats!! i love it when that happens.

weird nav setup you got there though. you’re clearly not using your Main Menu linklist. if you just add links there for each of your collections, the above code should work, and give you the collection names as keywords for your index page.

But I guess you’ve gone with the blog. While you’re at it, impossibly refining your head section, you might as well stick the title tags in there too.

Chelsea commented

Chelsea — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 20:40:23 +0000

I am going to try to use this to display user feedback on product pages.

You rock Christina.

Christina commented

Christina — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:55:50 +0000

ooo. why thank you. glad you like it.
plus i sleep on a 100% wool bed, made specially by my local wool bed maker :)
very nice site you have.

Chelsea commented

Chelsea — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 03:53:43 +0000

I sleep on a wool bed too; along with my wool bedding, it’s the best sleep I have ever had.

I will post to this thread when I have figured out the user feedback using the code above.

Wool rules.

FannyA commented

FannyA — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:57:24 +0000

Christina, thanks for the code, I’ll try it.

Chelsea, I’m looking forward to your code for user feedback.

Lastly, my little lamb is sleeping on a sheepskin since birth and still loving it 2 years later.

Chelsea commented

Chelsea — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:00:39 +0000

I will keep working on the user feedback stuff tonight; slow going, as my grasp on liquid is tenuous, but I think I have it half working at least.

Here is what I intend to be able to do with it when done:

- Define the content for unspecified pages in a Feedback blog that would display on a site
- Display Feedback for specific products, either that are already in the cart, or that are being viewed by the potential customer.

Aside: That’s wonderful FannyA; my daughter Raechel is 9, and she sleeps on a wool and natural latex bed, as well as under a wool duvet. (So do I for that matter.) It has improved my allergies and asthma considerably, to the point that I no longer needing an inhaler.

leeann commented

leeann — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 23:58:06 +0000

Hi, I’m back again… I installed the code above that Christina supplied, the description is working somewhat, but it doesn’t put a comma between my meta keywords, I would also like to be able to specify the keywords I would like to use on each page without having to use the links list.

Does anyone how I can get around using the link list as my keywords?

Thanks in advanced!

Lee Ann

FannyA commented

FannyA — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 18:25:39 +0000

Christina, shall I just copy and paste your code into theme.liquid?
Sorry I’m rubbish at technique.

Edited to add
It works! I pasted the code in the head of my theme.liquid. I did View page source on my website and it worked.
Thanks a bunch!

FannyA commented

FannyA — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:28:30 +0000

Hi Folks,

I have errors with IE. HTML validator says that <meta> are not closed.

I added </meta> at the end of each code line Christina gave us and now he says “discarding unexpected </meta>”.

What to do? Please could somebody help me?

FannyA commented

FannyA — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:39:56 +0000

I think I fixed it…. sorry it’s so blurry for me ;-)

Christina commented

Christina — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 04:08:35 +0000

Fanny, you found a bug in my code – sorry about the trouble it’s caused you.

The problem arises because I was sloppy about closing the self-closing meta tags. The proper way to do it, if you’re using an xhtml doctype (which you are) is: space – backslash – closing bracket. In some of the lines above, I didn’t put in the space, and in others, I’m even missing the backslash, egad!

The right way:

<meta name="whatever" content="whatever" />

corrected code:

{% assign maxwords = 20 %}
{% assign indexblog = 'frontpage' %}

{% case template %}
    {% when 'collection' %}
        <meta name="description" content="{{page_title}}{% if collection.description.size > 0 %}: {{collection.description | strip_html | truncatewords:maxwords}}{% endif %}" />
        <meta name="keywords" content= "{{collection.title}}{% if collection.tags.size > 0 %}: {{ collection.tags | join: ', ' }}{% endif %}" />
    {% when 'product' %}
        <meta name="description" content="{{page_title}}{% if product.description.size > 0 %}: {{product.description | strip_html | truncatewords:maxwords}}{% endif %}" />
        <meta name="keywords" content="{{product.title}}{% if product.tags.size > 0 %}: {{ product.tags | join: ', ' }}{% endif %}" />
    {% when 'page' %}
        <meta name="description" content="{{page_title}}: {{page.content | strip_html | truncatewords:maxwords}}" />
        <meta name="keywords" content="{{page_title}}" />
    {% when 'blog' %}
        <meta name="description" content="{{page_title}}" />
        <meta name="keywords" content="{{page_title}}" />
    {% else %}
        <meta name="description" content="{{shop.name}}{% if blogs.[indexblog].articles.size > 0 %}: {% for article in blogs.[indexblog].articles limit:1 %}{{ article.title }}: {{article.content | strip_html | truncatewords:maxwords}}{% endfor %}{% endif %}" />
        <meta name="keywords" content= "{% for link in linklists.Main-Menu.links %}{% if link.type == 'collection_link' %}{{link.title}} {% endif %}{% endfor %}" />
{% endcase %}

You have to get rid of the </meta> in your html, that’s not the right syntax.
Hope this helps.

@leeann: if you want more customization of keywords, use the other meta tag method given here, and adapt it to work for keywords too, like JohnG did (see comments above).

@JohnG: wanna share your adventurous code?

JohnG commented

JohnG — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 01:33:30 +0000

Christina, I’d be happy to share but it would duplicate what is already available. I used your code “right out of the box” – that is I cut and pasted it from your post to my theme.liquid between the <head></head> tags. I then created the metadescription blogs as explained in your post and it worked!

Once I had the Descriptions part functioning, I took the same code and search/replaced the word “description” with “keywords” and put this directly under the metadescription code. Then I added metakeyword blogs and that’s it.

Two things I’d like to improve/fix are (1) stripping out the page titles that display before each meta description and (2) eliminate the extra areas of white space before and after the meta tags.

I’ve tried to figure out how to do both, but am stumped.

Any suggestions?

Christina commented

Christina — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:52:23 +0000

ok.

you can get rid of the page titles by removing all instances of page_title from the code – maybe just leaving it in for the blog template, otherwise you won’t have much meta to show.

the whitespace cannot be removed by us. it’s the trace left behind from processing all the conditional statements. the shopify crew would have to do something to their code to fix that, but i’m not sure that that is (or should be) a huge priority. it’s not very pretty, but it’s harmless.

JohnG commented

JohnG — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 19:02:52 +0000

Thanks Christina.

For some reason, I am unable to strip the page title out of the meta keyword displays on my ‘collection’ pages. The code snippet in question is:

<meta name="keyword" content=" 
{% capture meta_default %}
    {% case template %}
        {% when 'collection' %}
            {{page_title}}{% if collection.keyword.size > 0 %} {{collection.keyword | strip_html | truncatewords:maxwords}}{% endif %}
        {% when 'product' %}
            {{page_title}}{% if product.keyword.size > 0 %}: {{product.keyword | strip_html | truncatewords:maxwords}}{% endif %}
        {% when 'blog' %}
            {% if blog.articles.size == 1 %}
                {% for article in blog.articles %}
                    {{article.content | strip_html | truncatewords:maxwords}}
                {% endfor %}
            {% else %}
                {{page_title}}
            {% endif %}
        {% else %}
             {{shop.name}}: {% if blogs[indexblog].articles.size > 0 %}: {% for article in blogs[indexblog].articles limit:1 %}{{ article.title }}: {{article.content | strip_html | truncatewords:maxwords}}{% endfor %}{% endif %}
    {% endcase %} 
{% endcapture %}

I deleted {{page_title}} from the “collection’ portion, but it still displays prior to the metakeywords. Is it being fed from the blog which, of course, has the same title? FYI, I want to retain the titles for all other pages, just not on the ‘collection’ pages.

What am I missing?

Guy15 commented

Guy15 — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 04:45:11 +0000

Christina, and everyone. I hate to sound dumb but I have been reading these meta tag forums for hours and it doesnt all make complete sense to me yet.

Where do I put this code in assets, and what variables do i change, with my own data? I simply need to incorporate meta descriptions and am at square 1. Though my site generates sales daily, I am a beginner with coding. Be gentle.

www.breastformshop.com

Christina commented

Christina — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 07:29:17 +0000

code doesn’t go into assets; it goes into templates.
this one goes into the template called “theme”.
go to admin ->assets ->theme editor.
click on “theme”. copy and paste the code that you see there to a safe place, (such as notepad, if you’re on windows.) make a backup. make another backup. then you can start messing around with it. copy and paste the code from here to your theme template, after the first line of meta tag you see. that’s basically it.

Guy15 commented

Guy15 — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 13:45:10 +0000

so then I just replace the words “keywords” and “description” with my own? Do keywords need to be separated with comma or just space? thanks

Guy15 commented

Guy15 — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:42:09 +0000

Also do I have to change ‘page_title’ or anything to meet my handles?

Guy15 commented

Guy15 — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 04:11:02 +0000

bump

Caroline Schnapp commented

Caroline Schnapp — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:42:16 +0000

so then I just replace the words “keywords” and “description” with my own?

No.

Christina said: “copy and paste the code from here to your theme”.

Also do I have to change ‘page_title’ or anything to meet my handles?

No again.

Christina said: “copy and paste the code from here to your theme”.

Sorry to barge in.

Guy15 commented

Guy15 — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:45:37 +0000

I thought thats what she meant but how am I supposed to determine what keywords to use? I would like to pick keywords most relevant. Thanks

Guy15 commented

Guy15 — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:31:55 +0000

Ok I am learning some of the lingo and I figured out most of this. The only thing I want to figure out is how I can enter some code that I can determine my own keywords, rather than let it pull the title (which isn’t showing up anyway). So do I make another page called keywords then fill it in or what? I almost have this, thanks.

www.ozonhair.com
www.breastformshop.com

Internet Marketing commented

Internet Marketing — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 06:14:56 +0000

Need help…..I can’t get unique meta tags to work on each of my pages. I am using the following code.

Based on this post http://www.bestrank.com/blog/making-your-shopify-site-seo-friendly-141/#comment-1243 it should work.

Any help? please…..thank you.

{% case page_title %}
{% when null %}
<title>{{shop.name}} – {{page_title}}</title>
{% when ‘Welcome’ %}
<title>T-Shirt Printer | T-Shirt Customization</title>
<meta name="”keywords”" content="”t-shirt" printing>
<meta t-shirt name="”description”" and own customize content="”Create" your>
{% else %}
<title>{{shop.name}} | {{page_title}}</title>
{% assign maxwords = 20 %}
{% assign indexblog = ‘frontpage’ %}

{% case template %}
{% when ‘collection’ %}
<meta name="”description”" collection if content="”{{page_title}}{%"> 0 %}: {{collection.description | strip_html | truncatewords:maxwords}}{% endif %}”/>
<meta name="”keywords”" collection if content="“{{collection.title}}{%"> 0 %}: {{ collection.tags | join: ‘, ‘ }}{% endif %}” />
{% when ‘product’ %}
<meta name="”description”" product if content="”{{page_title}}{%"> 0 %}: {{product.description | strip_html | truncatewords:maxwords}}{% endif %}”/>
<meta name="”keywords”" product if content="”{{product.title}}{%"> 0 %}: {{ product.tags | join: ‘, ‘ }}{% endif %}”>
{% when ‘page’ %}
<meta name="”description”" content="”{{page_title}}:">
<meta name="”keywords”" content="”{{page_title}}”">
{% when ‘blog’ %}
<meta name="”description”" content="”{{page_title}}”" />
<meta name="”keywords”" content="”{{page_title}}”">
{% else %}
<meta name="”description”" if content="”{{shop.name}}{%" blogs> 0 %}: {% for article in blogs.[indexblog].articles limit:1 %}{{ article.title }}: {{article.content | strip_html | truncatewords:maxwords}}{% endfor %}{% endif %}”/>
<meta name="”keywords”" linklists in content="“{%" link for>
{% endcase %}
{% endcase %}

Christina commented

Christina — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:38:15 +0000

whose site is that you link to?

that page says ”we came up with a relatively simple way to include custom tags on your Shopify site”

more like ”we grabbed this code from right here (see above), mangled it because we don’t understand it, and then posted it on our site as ours.”

Caroline Schnapp commented

Caroline Schnapp — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 19:41:35 +0000

Usually, those who claim they are SEO specialists know shit about HTML. (And if I dare say, have very relaxed ethics in general…)

It is imperative that these folks know about HTML because search engines read HTML.

That is ludicrous (from ‘the’ site):

You want to place the code between the head tag and body tag on the theme.liquid page.

More like between the opening and closing tags of the head element.

In his response to Christina he states that:

Also, all of the conditionals that we worked with were placed on the “theme.liquid” page as opposed to altering each individual template page.

Christina never said you have to alter template pages. Why would she use a conditional on the type of template if she did not place her code in theme.liquid?

The blind leading the blind.

People who want to ride the wave of ecommerce, but who are not computer-savvy, become SEO specialists, quite often. They remind me of chiropracters (although like chiropracters there are probably a few good ones out there): “Give me a couple of thousands dollars (or hundreds) and you will feel less pain. Of course, it’s not for tomorrow, it will take 3-4 months, maybe more time…” Etc.

Caroline Schnapp commented

Caroline Schnapp — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 19:45:28 +0000

Repeat. Bad Internet connection.

Caroline Schnapp commented

Caroline Schnapp — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:06:52 +0000

John Stevesone is a spammer. Please ban these people…

tobi commented

tobi — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:08:50 +0000

he is gone ;-)

The suggestions in this thread are good. We also have a little feature on our roadmap that will allow people to enter per page meta tag overrides and page title overrides.

This should be part of a deployment this summer.

thepims commented

thepims — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:39:04 +0000

@Tobi please please please! That would be great!

AlexWyatt commented

AlexWyatt — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:04:24 +0000

Okay I just had some time to take a look at Meta Tags, I have been busy dealing with other things. But I think possibly I should take a look at this issue.

I love Shopify but I get annoyed when I see others competitors Rank higher. I sell Games and Gadgets etc but I am no expert on Key Words.

Suggestions please ?

www.channelgoods.com is my website …. can someone have a look at my tags or make a suggestion how I can improve them.

Consolesandgagets …this is a website that ranks so high on google in the same market as me…what are they doing right and I am doing wrong ?

Help my fellow Shopify supporters

Stuart Whitman commented

Stuart Whitman — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:53:39 +0000

Alex,

The code that Christina supplied is pretty good and can be modified relatively easily. I would say the title tag is the most important and the keywords apart from the homepage aren’t worth bothering about.

The is the code I use on my http://collateit.co.uk site

{% assign maxwords = 20 %}
{% assign indexblog = 'frontpage' %}

{% case template %}
    {% when 'collection' %}
        <meta name="description" content="{% if collection.description.size > 0 %} {{collection.description | strip_html | truncatewords:maxwords}}{% endif %}"/>
        <meta name="keywords" content= "{{collection.title}}{% if collection.tags.size > 0 %} {{ collection.tags | join: ', ' }}{% endif %}" />
    <title>{{ page_title }}</title>
    {% when 'product' %}
        <meta name="description" content="{% if product.description.size > 0 %}{{product.description | strip_html | truncatewords:maxwords}}{% endif %}, Price {{ product.price | money }}"/>
        <meta name="keywords" content="{% if product.tags.size > 0 %}{{ product.tags | join: ', ' }}{% endif %}{{product.title}}" />
        {% case product.handle %}
           {% when 'sage-compatible-1pt-a4-invoice' %}
              <title>Sage Invoices - {{ page_title }} - Sage Invoice Stationary</title>
           {% when 'sage-compatible-1-part-a4-statement-remittance' %}
              <title>Sage Statement Remittances - {{ page_title }} - Sage Statements Stationary</title>
           {% when 'sage-compatible-1pt-a4-laser-payslip-plus-address' %}
              <title>Sage Payslip with Address - {{ page_title }} - Sage Payslip Stationary</title>
           {% when 'sage-compatible-1pt-a4-laser-payslip' %}
              <title>Sage Payslips - {{ page_title }} - Sage Payslips Stationary</title>
           {% when 'sage-compatible-1pt-a4-laser-pressure-seal-payslip' %}
              <title>Sage Pressure Seal Payslip - {{ page_title }} - Sage Pressureseal Stationary</title>
           {% when 'iris-compatible-1-part-a4-pay-advice' %}
              <title>Iris Payslips - {{ page_title }} - RF01 Iris Payroll Stationary Payslip</title>
           {% when 'pegasus-laser-hand-pressure-seal-payslip' %}
              <title>Pegasus Pressure Seal Payslips - RP220 Pegasus Payroll Stationery - Pegasus Payslips</title>
           {% else %}
               {% case product.vendor %}
                  {% when 'print' %}
          <title>{{ page_title }}</title>
                  {% else %}
          <title>{{ page_title }} - {% for variant in product.variants %}{%if forloop.first%}{{variant.sku}}{% endif %}{% endfor %} {{product.type}}</title>
                  {% endcase %}
        {% endcase %}
    {% when 'page' %}
        <meta name="description" content="{{page.content | strip_html | truncatewords:maxwords}}"/>
        <meta name="keywords" content="{{page_title}}" />
    <title>{{ page_title }}</title>
    {% when 'cart' %}
    <title>My Basket</title>
    {% when 'blog' %}
        <meta name="description" content="{{page_title}}" />
        <meta name="keywords" content="{{page_title}}" />
    <title>{{ page_title }}</title>
    {% when 'index' %}
        <meta name="description" content="Save 75% with Compatible Forms for your Sage Accounts, Sage Payroll and Iris PAYE-Master stationery. Everything from Sage Invoices, Sage Statements and Sage Payslips through to Iris Payslips and new security Pressure Seal forms. All paper is available from stock and delivered next day. 100% satisfaction guaranteed. Free samples 0191 440 5595."/>
        <meta name="keywords" content="compatible forms, payslips, invoices, statements, business forms, stationery, stationary, accounts, accounting, payroll, pre-printed, collateit, sage, iris, paye master, pegasus" />
    <title>Sage Stationery - Compatible Forms - Iris Stationary - Everyday low prices on Sage Iris Pegasus Paper Forms</title>
    {% else %}
        <meta name="description" content="{{shop.name}}{% if blogs.[indexblog].articles.size > 0 %}: {% for article in blogs.[indexblog].articles limit:1 %}{{ article.title }}: {{article.content | strip_html | truncatewords:maxwords}}{% endfor %}{% endif %}" />
        <meta name="keywords" content= "{% for link in linklists.Main-Menu.links %}{% if link.type == 'collection_link' %}{{link.title}} {% endif %}{% endfor %}" />
{% endcase %}

I picked my top selling products then created a simple case statement checking for the relevant handle e.g.


        {% case product.handle %}
           {% when 'sage-compatible-1pt-a4-invoice' %}
              <title>My title goes here - try repeating your keywords twice</title>

I would also suggest you use the h1 and h2 tags on your product page for your keywords/phrases and repeat them within your copy.

Once you’ve done that it’s all about the links. YOU NEED TO GET INCOMING LINKS from good quality sites.

So you need to think about forums, blogs, twitter etc and just keep working at that.

Caroline Schnapp commented

Caroline Schnapp — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:31:07 +0000

Stuart knows more about SEO than 99% of self-proclaimed SEO (<del>scam artists</del>) specialists out there. I agree with 100% he said. Read it again and again. Apply as much of it as you can. What we need to do now is not the same as what we needed to do 5 years ago, and it will change somewhat again in the future, but Stuart’s advice is current and very wise.

Thank you, Stuart. You have a heart of gold.

PS. You average run of the mill SEO sleeze site out there knows close to nothing about what they’re saying, unfortunately. So beware.

AlexWyatt commented

AlexWyatt — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 18:07:13 +0000

Stuart if you have some time I could pay for your help or send you some free products. I am not a Tech guy and I only trust the Shopify experienced people to help me with this one. I get afraid when I am about to mess with my code. Are you on SKype or anywhere that we could arrange for the code to get dropped in.

AlexWyatt commented

AlexWyatt — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 18:09:21 +0000

I use PR News also and Twitter, I do the links everyday and to good sites.

Regards

www.channelgoods.com

Caroline Schnapp commented

Caroline Schnapp — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 19:02:47 +0000

Stuart if you have some time I could pay for your help or send you some free products.

His post to you is invaluable. You should definitely pay him already just for that :)

AlexWyatt commented

AlexWyatt — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 21:29:13 +0000

Caroline I trust every word you print.

www.channelgoods.com

Stuart thanks for the emails

tobi commented

tobi — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:24:58 +0000

Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking

Jen commented

Jen — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:43:20 +0000

I like the way shopify works with the shop name and the page titles, it really makes seo work easier on me. :D Normally I have :

<title>{{shop.name}} - {{page_title}}</title>

and also

{% case template %}
    {% when 'collection' %}
        <meta name="description" content="{{page_title}}{% if collection.description.size > 0 %}: {{collection.description | strip_html | truncatewords:maxwords}}{% endif %}"/>
        <meta name="keywords" content= "{{collection.title}}{% if collection.tags.size > 0 %}: {{ collection.tags | join: ', ' }}{% endif %}" />
    {% when 'product' %}
        <meta name="description" content="{{page_title}}{% if product.description.size > 0 %}: {{product.description | strip_html | truncatewords:maxwords}}{% endif %}"/>
        <meta name="keywords" content="{{product.title}}{% if product.tags.size > 0 %}: {{ product.tags | join: ', ' }}{% endif %}">
    {% when 'page' %}
        <meta name="description" content="{{page_title}}: {{page.content | strip_html | truncatewords:maxwords}}"/>
        <meta name="keywords" content="{{page_title}}">
    {% when 'blog' %}
        <meta name="description" content="{{page_title}}"/>
        <meta name="keywords" content="{{page_title}}">
    {% else %}
        <meta name="description" content="{{shop.name}}{% if blogs.[indexblog].articles.size > 0 %}: {% for article in blogs.[indexblog].articles limit:1 %}{{ article.title }}: {{article.content | strip_html | truncatewords:maxwords}}{% endfor %}{% endif %}"/>
        <meta name="keywords" content= "{% for link in linklists.Main-Menu.links %}{% if link.type == 'collection_link' %}{{link.title}} {% endif %}{% endfor %}" />
{% endcase %}

I don't really want to change that part of it, only the index page to be this:

{% when 'index' %}
        <meta name="description" content="Shop for your Intimates - Bras, Panties, Lingerie, Maternity, Active Wear, Shape Wear, Swim Wear, Costumes, Mastectomy, Post Operative and More!"/>
        <meta name="keywords" content="Magnifique, Intimates, Bras, Panties, Lingerie, Maternity, Active Wear, Shape Wear, Swim Wear, Costumes, Mastectomy, Post Operative" />
        <title>Magnifique - Shop for your Intimates - Bras, Panties, Lingerie and More!</title>

So I realized in dabbling on my own that I had to take out:

<title>{{shop.name}} - {{page_title}}</title>

or else the shop name would override the index command I put in. I took it out, that worked GREAT for my index page....but....then the rest of my pages don't work quite the same. I notice as I browse from page to page that they are showing the website URL briefly and then the shop name and page title come up. how can I keep it from doing that? what am I missing? any guesses? :D In the meantime I changed it back to the way it was since that works good for the rest of my pages.

Julene commented

Julene — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:01:54 +0000

I think you just need to reference the title code in each of your "When" conditions so that you can control all titles. When 'index' can have exactly what text you want for the main page, and the others can make use of the variables shop.name and page_title. Make sense?

Jen commented

Jen — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 03:08:44 +0000

@Julene,

Thanks for the reply. I'm sorry I'm not quite following...I did change the index so that it worked and the others were actually working too, my problem is that for a brief second (and maybe most wouldn't notice this but it bothers me) it shows my URL for that page and then the shop name and the page title come up. so for those who are not looking at the tab on the top, they probably wouldn't notice it at all because once it blinks the URL, it then goes away and the shop name and page title are there for you to see after that. but I don't want it to blink that URL. all else is working though. but please note that I did change it back to it's original way so that it doesn't blink the URLs

Beechy commented

Beechy — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:33:43 +0000

Is there a way to add a unique page title to a collection tag...

i.e if I am at the url /collections/shirts/green-shirts

Rachael Designer commented

Rachael Designer — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:45:26 +0000

Hi Stuart, I'm sure you've had a lot of responses after posting the code snippet above... Your site looks really good from a SEO point of view- especially impressed with every page having a unique page title. Does the code generate this?

Stuart Whitman commented

Stuart Whitman — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:49:56 +0000

Hi Rachael,

Shopify uses the product title as the page title as standard when viewing a product page so you should get unqiue title tags anyway.

All I've done is supplemented this with additional data to suit my particular store. It really depends what niche your in as to what 'extremes' you want to take it.