🚀 SEO Problem Solvers 🚀

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Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) explained

Infigo allows users to set specific terms for each Category, Product and Page to allow search engines to rank the site higher in their results.

We allow you to enter

Meta keywords
Meta description
Meta title
Search engine friendly page name

 

Meta Keywords - These are words that will help a search engine understand what this page is displaying. Use words that describe what the page / product is, what's for sale, what you would expect to search for the search engine to return this page

Meta Description - The meta description is the text that appears below the blue link in a Google search. Words that matched the query get pulled out in bold. This is a great place to add marketing messages about products, discounts, unique selling points or differentiators. It should be a unique message for each page.

Meta Title - A meta title shows the name of a web page. The title is displayed by the browser, usually at the top of your computer screen, and tells a visitor what page they are on.

Search engine friendly page name - Usually a text string. This is the term appended to the storefront to make the category or product name appear in the URL with the identifiers that are added by Infigo automatically. For example www.URL.infisosoftware.com/storefront/c/51 would then appear as www.URL.infisosoftware.com/storefront/c/51/greetingscards

 

How do I change the URL structure for SEO?

In Infigo, the core URL structure for product and category pages is fixed and cannot be fully rewritten into a completely custom path.

For categories, the platform uses a mandatory structure based on /c/{id}. For products, it uses /p/{id}. This means you cannot change a category URL from something like /c/2 to a fully custom structure such as /category/full-product-title, and you cannot remove the /p/{id} or /c/{id} portion from product or category URLs.

What you can do is improve the readable part of the URL for SEO by using the Search Engine Friendly Page Name setting. This lets you append a human-readable path after the required ID-based structure. For example:

  • Category: /c/2/category-name
  • Product: /p/2061/product-name

You can also use canonical URLs to tell search engines which version of a page should be treated as the preferred version for indexing.

If you are moving from an older website and want to preserve SEO value from existing URLs, one possible approach is to use redirects from the old URLs to the new Infigo URLs. This helps avoid broken links and reduces the risk of 404 errors after launch.

Key Settings

Search Engine Friendly Page Name

This setting lets you add a descriptive page name to the end of a product or category URL.

What it does:

  • Adds a readable, SEO-friendly text segment after the required /p/{id} or /c/{id} structure
  • Makes the URL clearer for users and search engines

What it does not do:

  • It does not remove or replace /p/{id} for products
  • It does not remove or replace /c/{id} for categories
  • It does not let you create a completely different folder structure such as /products/category/product-name

Canonical URL

This setting helps search engines understand which URL should be treated as the main version of the page.

What it does:

  • Supports SEO by guiding indexing toward your preferred page version
  • Can be useful when you want to reinforce which URL search engines should prioritize

What it does not do:

  • It does not change the visible live URL structure for the page

Redirects

Redirects can be used when you need traffic from legacy URLs to reach the new Infigo pages.

What they do:

  • Send visitors and search engines from old URLs to the correct new URLs
  • Help prevent 404 errors during a site migration

Things to note:

  • Redirects may need to be provided as a source-to-destination list
  • Redirect work may be chargeable depending on the number required
  • Redirects are the correct solution for preserving old URL paths, not replacing the Infigo page structure itself

Use Cases

Keeping URLs more readable for SEO

You want a category URL to be easier to understand than /c/2. In this case, you can add a Search Engine Friendly Page Name so the URL becomes something like /c/2/category-name.

Improving product page naming

You want product URLs to include the product title for search visibility. You can add a Search Engine Friendly Page Name so the URL becomes something like /p/2061/product-name.

Migrating from an older website

Your previous site used custom paths such as /product-category/banners/ or /products/banners/product-name/. Because those structures cannot be recreated natively in Infigo, you would use redirects from the old URLs to the new Infigo URLs.

Supporting search engine indexing

You want search engines to treat a specific version of a page as the preferred version. In that case, you can use the canonical URL setting alongside the Search Engine Friendly Page Name.

Step-by-Step Implementation Guide

  1. Open the product or category you want to update in the admin area.
  2. Open the details page for a particular product and go to the SEO section for that item.
  3. Find the Search Engine Friendly Page Name field.
  4. Enter the descriptive name you want to use for the page.

    For example, instead of leaving the URL as only /c/2 or /p/2061, add a readable name so the URL ends with something like /category-name or /product-name.

  5. Save your changes.
  6. Check the resulting URL on the storefront.

    The URL should now include your readable page name, but the required Infigo structure will still remain in place:

    • Categories will still include /c/{id}
    • Products will still include /p/{id}
  7. If needed, add or update the Canonical URL in the SEO section.

  8.  

    This is useful when you want to support indexing and make it clearer to search engines which page URL should be treated as primary.

  9. If you are replacing an older website, prepare a redirect list for legacy URLs.

    Create a mapping from each old URL to its new Infigo equivalent. This is the recommended way to preserve traffic and SEO value when your previous site used a different URL format.

  10. Arrange for redirects to be added.

    Redirects can be added for specific URLs, but this may depend on your setup and may be chargeable based on the number required.

What you can and cannot change

You can change:

  • The SEO-friendly name appended to the end of a product or category URL
  • The canonical URL used for search engine guidance
  • Legacy URL handling through redirects

You cannot change:

  • The required /p/{id} structure for product URLs
  • The required /c/{id} structure for category URLs
  • The live Infigo page URL so it fully matches an older custom path while still serving the same Infigo content

Ensuring Private B2B Products Remain Unindexed by Search Engines While Staying Visible to Authorized Users

Overview
Sometimes, you have products or entire storefronts that you only want specific customers to see (for example, B2B clients or internal users). In these scenarios, it is important to ensure that they do not appear in public Google search results while still remaining searchable for logged-in users on your site. This article covers the core settings and approaches you can use in Infigo to achieve that.

Below, we’ll discuss why private products might be appearing in search engine results, how to prevent them from being indexed, and how to make them accessible exclusively to authorized or logged-in customers. Key points include:

  • Disabling search engine indexing of specific products or entire storefronts.

  • Keeping products discoverable via your internal search for those who are logged in.

  • Configuring meta tags and deciding whether to use “Show in Search Results” for each product.


Use Cases / Scenarios

  • B2B Clients: You only want certain products to appear for specific corporate customers.

  • Development / Demo Sites: You’re building a test storefront that should not be publicly visible in search engines.

  • Private Marketing Materials: Marketing collateral or branded content for internal staff or select partners.

  • Archived Products: Products being phased out, but still visible internally for reference or reordering, without letting the public find them.


Key Settings Involved

  • Show in Search Result (Catalogue > Products > Product Management > Edit [Specific Product] > Product Info [Tab]): Controls whether a product is displayed in your site’s own search results.

  • PageHeadContainer (Configuration > Settings > Infigo Settings): Any HTML content placed here appears inside the <head> of every page on the storefront (useful for sitewide meta tags).

  • Tracking Scripts (Catalogue > Products > Product Management > Edit [Specific Product] > SEO [Tab]): A location to place <meta> tags or scripts that will only appear on a single product’s page.

  • Temporarily close the storefront (Configuration > Settings > General Settings): An option to lock down the entire storefront from public access.


Detailed Article

  1. Hiding Entire Store from Search Engines

    • Go to Infigo Settings

    • Locate the PageHeadContainer setting.

    • Paste the following meta tag to instruct search engines not to index your site:

       
      <meta name="robots" content="noindex">
    • Save your changes. This adds the “noindex” directive to the <head> of every page. From this point forward, search engines (like Google) are signaled not to include any page from this storefront in their search results.

  2. Hiding Individual Products from Search Engines

    • Navigate to the Product in question within your admin area.

    • Select the SEO tab.

    • In the Tracking Scripts field, insert the meta tag:

       
      <meta name="robots" content="noindex">
    • This will only affect that single product page, ensuring search engines do not index it.

    • Keep “Show in Search Result” turned on if you still want the product discoverable internally via your storefront’s search for logged-in users.

  3. Using “Show in Search Result”

    • When enabled, products appear in your internal search results. This does not automatically mean the product will appear on Google.

    • When disabled, products won’t show in your internal storefront search either (which can be problematic if you still want authorized customers to find them).

    • If your primary goal is to hide content from Google but keep it visible internally, it’s often best to leave Show in Search Result on and add the noindex meta tag to the specific product (or sitewide) to keep the page invisible to search engines.

  4. Temporarily Close the Storefront

    • If you are in early development or performing large updates, you can “temporarily close” the entire storefront.

    • This option is found in General Settings. Once enabled, visitors see a maintenance or closed message, preventing search bots or the public from browsing the site.

    • This is especially useful if the store is not officially launched or is meant to be purely internal.

  5. Confirming Noindex Status

    • Use tools like Google Search Console to verify that your site or product pages are no longer indexed.

    • Keep in mind that after adding the noindex tag, it can take some time for search engines to re-crawl and update their results.

Applying SEO details to a Product / Category

Infigo allows you to apply Search Engine optimisation to Categories and Products.

To apply the values, edit the page (product / category) you wish to add them to > click the SEO tab at the top of the page > apply your values and click save

Adding Meta Title, Keywords and Description

Metadata is data (information) that provides information about other data.

Metadata will not be displayed on the page but is machine parsable so can be used by browsers, search engines or other web services to understand more about the page they are displaying.

The common meta tags use on web pages and those supported in Catfish are Description and Keywords.

Description:

Sometimes used by search engines as the descriptive black text in the search result listing, meta descriptions can help increase the customer click through in search results but will not necessarily impact rankings directly.

Keywords:

Although Meta keywords ceased to impact rankings in 2009, people still use them, albeit with caution.

Title Tags:

Title tags are still the single most important piece of metadata on the page. 

The best title tags begin with the most relevant keywords, product name, or article name and end with the name of the site

 

To set these up on your Catfish storefront you have a number of options.

Storefront wide:

Under Configuration > Settings > General and Miscellaneous Settings : SEO settings tab, you have a number of options to configure.

Page title separator is as the name suggests the the character (or series of characters) that you wish to use to separate your page titles.

Default title will appear as the page title on ALL your website pages, so think carefully before adding text here.

Default meta keywords will get appended as the keyword meta data your ALL your website pages.

Default meta description will get appended as the meta description on ALL your website pages.

Home Page Meta Title allows you to set the page title for just your websites home page. A new setting we added recently in order to provide you with more flexibility.

Home Page Keywords are keywords, again that you can setup just for your website homepage

Home Page Description is the description that you can write that will only populate the home page meta description

 

As well as these default SEO settings, you will also find a SEO tab on your category pages, product pages and topic pages that give you complete control over the meta data that gets used on each of your pages.

 

To note: If you do not want the same meta data to be used on all your pages then leave the Default entries blank. Enter in the text for your homepage and then ensure that each of your product, category and topic pages have custom entries for Title, Keyword (if you wish to use it) and Description.

Blocking Search Engine Indexing

This article explains how to prevent search engines, such as Google, from crawling and indexing your website. This is especially useful for demo, staging, or non-public sites that you do not want to appear in search results.

There are two primary methods to block search engine indexing: using a robots.txt file to disallow crawling and adding a noindex meta tag to your site’s HTML. Both methods can be easily implemented to ensure your site remains hidden from search engine results.

In addition to these settings, you can also password-protect your website for an extra layer of privacy. Once you have applied your chosen method, you may need to request that search engines re-crawl your site to update their indexing.

Use cases

  • Demo or staging sites that are not intended for public discovery.
  • Websites that contain sensitive or under-development content.

Key settings in Infigo

  • PageHeadContainer: Found in Infigo Settings; add the noindex meta tag snippet to apply to every page of your storefront.
  • robots.txt file: Place this file in the root directory of your website to disallow all search engine crawlers.

Step-by-step guide

  1. Decide whether you want to use a robots.txt file, a meta tag, or a combination of both to block indexing.
  2. To use a robots.txt file, create or update the file at your website's root (for example, https://example.com/robots.txt) with the following lines:

    User-agent: *
    Disallow: /
  3. To use a meta tag, add the following snippet to the PageHeadContainer field in your Infigo Settings:

    <meta name='robots' content='noindex'>
  4. Save your changes and, if necessary, request that Google recrawls your site so that the new settings take effect.

Setting Up a 301 Redirect for Category URL Changes

This article explains how to redirect an old, SEO-optimized category URL to a new category URL without restoring a deleted category. Restoring a deleted category via the admin interface is not possible, and while technical restoration may be possible via the database (available as a chargeable service), it does not recover SEO metadata or original mappings.

The preferred solution is to set up a 301 redirect from the old URL (for example, /c/22/allbooks) to the new URL (for example, /c/15/allbooks). Doing so maintains your SEO value and ensures visitors are directed to the correct category page.

Below is a guide on how to configure this redirect via the URL Rewrite Rules in the Storefront Management area of Infigo.

Use cases

  • Redirecting a legacy SEO-focused category URL to a new category page.
  • Ensuring seamless user experience when product categories are remapped.

Key settings in Infigo

  • URL Rewrite Rules: Found under Storefront Management > URL Rewrite Rules.
  • Platform Admin Access: Required to view and modify URL rewrite configurations.

Step-by-step guide

  1. Log in to your Infigo platform using your platform admin credentials.
  2. Navigate to the Storefront Management section and select the URL Rewrite Rules page.


  3. Click on the option to add a new rewrite rule.

  4. In the source URL field, enter the old category URL (for example, /c/22/allbooks).
  5. In the destination URL field, enter the new category URL (for example, /c/15/allbooks).
  6. Enable the rewrite rule.

  7. Save the new rewrite rule and test the redirection to ensure it functions correctly.

Example: External Redirects (Redirecting to a Public Website)

A user wanted to redirect logout traffic from their Infigo storefront to an external site.

They initially used:

  • From URL:
    https://example.infigosoftware.com/logout

  • To URL:
    https://www.externalsite.com

🔧 This setup did not work due to how rewrite rules match HTTP patterns, external redirects must follow a specific format.

✅ Correct Format for External Redirects

1. Remove the s from https — Use http

Infigo matches redirects against non-secure (HTTP) traffic for internal pattern matching.

2. Use full match syntax in ‘From URL’:

  • Add ^ at the beginning

  • Add :80 after the domain (if using standard HTTP port)

  • Add $ at the end

✅ Corrected Rewrite Rule Example:

  • From URL:
    ^http://example.infigosoftware.com:80/logout$

  • To URL:
    http://www.externalsite.com

💡 The ^ and $ ensure exact match, and :80 tells the system it’s listening on the default HTTP port.

🔄 Why HTTPS Doesn’t Work Here

The rewrite engine evaluates requests using HTTP pattern matching. Even if your storefront uses HTTPS, the URL pattern in the rewrite rule must be in HTTP with the correct port, otherwise the rule will not trigger.

Note

Also make sure no EXTRA SPACES are in either URLs

Related links

For additional guidance, visit the Infigo Academyor contact Customer Support.


Improve product discoverability with Search Terms and extended search fields

You can now attach custom search keywords to individual products through a new Search Terms field, and optionally extend storefront search to match against additional product details such as SEO fields, teaser content, and product group names. This helps shoppers find the right products even when their search terms do not appear in the product name or SKU.

Configuration

Step 1: The Search extended product fields option in Catalog Settings

In the admin panel go to Configuration > Settings > Catalog Settings and scroll to the search options. Enable Improved textual product search, and the new Search extended product fields option appears beneath it. When switched on, storefront search also matches against the product teaser, SEO meta fields, and the product group name. After enabling it a full product re-index is required to populate the new fields for existing products.

step1_extended_search_setting.jpg

Step 2: The new Search Terms field on the product edit page

Open any product in Admin > Catalog > Products, then open the SEO tab of the product edit page. The new Search Terms field is a plain text area labelled Search Terms, with the hint "Custom keywords to improve product discoverability in search. Separate terms with commas or spaces." Enter custom keywords, separated by commas or spaces, then save the product. This field lives on an individual product's edit page.

step2_search_terms_field.jpg

Step 3: See it working on the storefront

This is the payoff. On the product "Tri-Fold Brochure A4", the Search Terms field was set to the keyword "zephyrpromo2026" - a word that appears nowhere in the product's name or description. After re-indexing, a shopper who searches the storefront for "zephyrpromo2026" gets that product back, as shown below. This is what the Search Terms field does: it lets you surface a product for keywords customers actually use, even when those words are not in the product title or description.

step3_storefront_search_result.jpg

Search Terms

Search Terms field product Search extended product fields improve product search keywords extend product search SEO teaser product group product re-index search fields

How do I stop search engines indexing a page on my storefront?

Summary

Configuration > Settings > SEO Settings has a Page is indexed tick-box on seven page tabs. Unticking it adds the page to your robots.txt (except Homepage), adds a robots meta tag and sends a robots response header. Theme files, download links and single products have their own settings.

Problem

You want search engines to leave out a page of your storefront, such as the search results page or the blog list, or you want your theme files, download links or one product kept out of search results.

Environment

Admin area > Configuration > Settings > SEO Settings, the content editor's File and Image components, and Catalogue > Products > Product Management.

Configuration

Step 1: Open SEO Settings

Sign in to the admin area. In the left-hand menu, click Configuration, then Settings, then SEO Settings. The page opens on the General tab, with a row of page tabs along the top. If you cannot see them all, scroll the tab row sideways.

Configuration > Settings > SEO Settings

Step 2: Open the tab of the page you want to hide

Click the tab for the page you want to hide. Seven tabs have a Page is indexed setting: Homepage, Search Results Page, Tag Category Results Search, Registration Confirm, Login Page, Blog Page and News Page. This example uses Search Results Page. The Basket, One page checkout, Order summary and My Account tabs have no such setting: those pages are already kept out of search engines. Page is indexed is normally ticked, which lets search engines list the page; the exception is Login Page, which is unticked, so it is already hidden. Blog Page and News Page cover the blog and news list pages, not individual posts or news items. Be careful with Homepage: unticking it asks search engines to leave your storefront's front page out of their results, which most stores never want.

Search Results Page tab Page is indexed: ticked by default

Step 3: Untick Page is indexed and save

Untick Page is indexed, then click Save at the top of the page. A green message confirms the update and the page returns to the General tab; open the tab again to see your change. This tells search engines not to list the page. Behind the scenes it adds the page's paths to your storefront's robots.txt file as Disallow lines, adds a robots meta tag to the page and sends a robots response header. The Homepage tab adds the meta tag and the header but no Disallow line, so that your whole storefront is not blocked. To let search engines list the page again, tick the box and save.

Page is indexed: unticked, then Save

Step 4: Check the change in robots.txt

In your browser, open your storefront address followed by /robots.txt (for example www.yourstore.com/robots.txt) and reload it with Ctrl+F5 (or your browser's hard-reload shortcut). For the Search Results Page tab you now see these three lines in the list: Disallow: /search$, Disallow: /search? and Disallow: /search/. If your storefront addresses include a language code, each line also appears with the language code in front. Ticking the box again and saving removes them. The file can be kept by browsers and other systems for up to eight hours, so if you do not see the change yet, reload again later. For the Homepage tab, robots.txt does not change: open the page, view its source and look for noindex. Each other tab adds its own paths. Please note: checking robots.txt confirms your setting, not that the page has left a search engine. A search engine can take weeks or even months to drop a page it has already listed, and a page blocked in robots.txt may stay listed. Google Search Console has a removal tool that hides a page sooner, but only for about six months.

Search results are now disallowed

Step 5: Check theme files and downloads are hidden

Back in SEO Settings, stay on the General tab. Hide non-image files from search engines is normally ticked; if it is not, tick it and click Save. While it is ticked, your theme's stylesheets and fonts, and download links that do not come from a File or Image component's own setting (for example older templates, or links pasted into text or emails), send a robots response header that tells search engines not to list them. Images are not affected. Files added through a File or Image component follow that component's own setting instead: open the component in the content editor, click the gear icon and set Hide from search engines? (the default is Yes for a File component and No for an Image component). Changing the General setting does not change those components. If a component does not show this option, the General setting applies to it.

Hide non-image files from search engines

Step 6: Hide a single product from search engines

Untick Show in search results on a product to hide it from your storefront's own search and ask search engines not to list it.

  1. Go to Catalogue > Products > Product Management, search for the product by name, open it and stay on the Product Info tab.
  2. Untick Show in search results. A new box, Allow direct access when not searchable, appears.
  3. Check Allow direct access when not searchable, as it may already be ticked. Tick it if customers should still be able to open the product page, for example because the product is in a category or on your home page. Leave it unticked only if customers should not reach the product at all (see below).
  4. Click Save. If the product is an item of a kit, a warning asks you to confirm the change: click Confirm, otherwise nothing is saved.
  5. Check it: search your storefront for the product. It should no longer appear.
  6. To reverse it, tick Show in search results again and click Save.

What unticking Show in search results does

  • On your storefront: the product no longer appears in your storefront's search results. It still appears in categories, and on the home page, if you have added it there.
  • For search engines: the product page sends a robots response header telling search engines not to list it, and the product is left out of your XML sitemap. Links to it in product boxes are marked nofollow, which tells search engines not to follow them.
  • robots.txt: hiding a product adds nothing to robots.txt. The Page is indexed tick-boxes in SEO Settings (step 3) are what add page lines to it.

What Allow direct access when not searchable does (it only appears while Show in search results is unticked)

  • Unticked: anyone who opens the product page, from a link, a category or the home page, is sent to your home page, so they cannot open it.
  • Ticked: the product page opens as normal. Nothing above changes: the product stays out of search and keeps its robots header.

Note: a search engine that has already listed the product drops it only after it next visits the page, which can take weeks or even months. Searching your own storefront does not show whether a search engine has dropped it.

Show in search results

Search Terms

robots.txt, noindex, page is indexed, search engines, google indexing, hide page from google, stop indexing, seo settings, x-robots-tag, hide non-image files, show in search results, remove page from google, block search engines, noindex page, hide product from google

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