SEO

The storefront prints every title, meta description, sharing tag and structured-data block itself. WordPress supplies only the words. You choose those words in three places: the SEO tab for store-wide settings and fallback patterns, each product, post, page, category, tag or brand for its own text, and, if you use one, Yoast SEO or Rank Math, which the Companion plugin reads and keeps in step with.

Before you start

• You need an administrator account to open StoreFront → Settings. Editors and shop managers can still edit the SEO of the items they are allowed to edit.
• Decide whether you will use Yoast SEO, Rank Math or neither. All three work. Without either, the plugin’s own SEO box appears on every product, post, page and term.
• Set the Storefront URL under StoreFront → Settings → General, so product addresses redirect to the storefront. See Connect the storefront.

Where each title and description comes from

For a product, category, tag, brand, article or policy page, the storefront uses the first of these that has a value:

1. The value typed in the active SEO plugin (Yoast SEO or Rank Math).
2. The value in the plugin’s own SEO box (or its saved copy of the SEO plugin’s value).
3. The pattern on the SEO tab for that kind of item and language.
4. The storefront’s own translated default.

Pages with no item behind them (home, shop, search and so on) use the Pages settings on the SEO tab, then the storefront default.

Caution

Title and description templates set inside Yoast SEO or Rank Math do not affect the storefront. Only the values typed on each item are read. Store-wide templates belong in the Patterns card on the SEO tab.

Set the store-wide SEO

StoreFront›Settings›SEO

1. Go to StoreFront → Settings and click SEO in the rail.
2. In Website, check the Website name and add a Default social image.
3. If you use Yoast SEO or Rank Math, click Sync SEO once (see below).
4. Fill in Patterns for each kind of item, using the placeholders.
5. Fill in Pages for the home page, shop and other fixed pages.
6. Click Save Changes.

Website

Setting	What it does	Default
Website name	Stands in for {site} in patterns, and names the store on shared links and to search engines. One line of plain text.	Blank (uses the WordPress Site Title)
Default social image	The image shown when a shared page has no image of its own. 1200 × 630 pixels suits every network.	None
With Yoast SEO and Rank Math both active, follow	Which plugin’s per-item values are read, copied and synced when both are active.	Rank Math

Sync SEO

What this card shows depends on your SEO plugin:

• Neither Yoast SEO nor Rank Math active: a note that SEO is edited in the SEO box on each item. No button.
• One of them active: a note that SEO is edited in that plugin, and that every change saved there is also kept by the Companion plugin, so nothing is lost if you deactivate it later. And a Sync SEO button.

Sync SEO fills blanks in both directions: a value only the SEO plugin has is copied to the Companion plugin, and a value only the Companion plugin has is copied to the SEO plugin. A value both have is never changed.

1. Click Sync SEO. It starts straight away; you do not need to press Save Changes.
2. Leave the page open or come back later. The status line updates every few seconds: “Running… N items checked so far.”
3. When it finishes, the card reads “Last run finished” with how many items were checked and copied each way.

• Run it once after activating Yoast SEO or Rank Math, after switching between them, or after installing the Companion plugin on a store that already has SEO data.
• Until a sync finishes for the plugin now in use, an information notice on the Dashboard, Plugins and product, post and term screens reminds you, with a link Open the SEO settings. It disappears once a sync finishes.
• The sync runs in the background, in batches of 500 items. Only one runs at a time (“A sync is already running.”). A run that stalls for 15 minutes counts as abandoned; clicking the button again resumes it.
• Text containing a % sign is not copied into the SEO plugin, because the plugin would read it as a variable.
• Nothing syncs automatically; only the button starts a run.

Placeholders

Words in braces that the storefront fills in. They work in every pattern and page title or description.

Placeholder	Becomes
{name}	The name of the product, category, brand, article or page
{site}	The website name
{category}	A product’s first category
{brand}	A product’s brand
{excerpt}	The short description or excerpt
{count}	How many products a category, tag or brand has
{page}	“Page 2”, “Page 3” and so on, on later pages of a listing; nothing on page 1
{search}	The words searched for

A placeholder with nothing to fill disappears together with the separator next to it. For example, the pattern {name} | {brand} | {site} on a product with no brand becomes “Oak Table | weStore”. An unknown placeholder is left as typed. A pattern title without {page} is numbered automatically on later pages of a listing.

Patterns

The title and description of any item that has none typed on it. One Title and one Description for each kind:

Setting	What it does	Default
Products: Title, Description	Used for product pages without their own SEO text.	Blank (storefront default)
Product categories: Title, Description	Used for category pages.	Blank
Product tags: Title, Description	Used for tag pages.	Blank
Brands: Title, Description	Used for brand pages.	Blank
Blog articles: Title, Description	Used for Journal articles.	Blank
Policy pages: Title, Description	Used for the five policy pages.	Blank

HTML is removed from patterns. Example patterns: Title {name} | {site}; Description {excerpt}.

Pages

Pages with no product, category or article behind them. Each has a Title, a Description and a Social image (which falls back to the Default social image). All are blank by default, which uses the storefront’s own text.

Home · Shop · Blog · All categories · All brands · Search results · Page not found · About us · Contact us · FAQ · Find a store

Placeholders work here too, for example {search} in the Search results title.

Note

For a store in more than one language, a Language switch appears above Patterns and Pages, and each language is saved separately. Adding languages to that switch needs a developer (the rsc_storefront_page_languages filter); there is no setting for it in wp-admin.

Edit SEO for one item

Without an SEO plugin

The plugin’s own SEO box appears below the editor on products, posts and pages, and as an SEO section on the Edit screens of product categories, tags and brands.

1. Open the item and scroll to the SEO box (on a term, the SEO rows near the bottom of the edit form).
2. Fill in only the fields you want to control. Every field is optional.
3. Click Update.

Setting	What it does	Default
SEO title	The title in search results and on the browser tab, used exactly as typed.	Blank (the pattern)
Meta description	The short text under the title in search results.	Blank (the pattern)
Social title	The title shown when a link to this page is shared.	Blank (the SEO title)
Social description	The text shown when a link is shared.	Blank (the meta description)
Social image	The image shown when a link is shared.	None (the item’s own image, then the Default social image)
Hide from search	“Ask search engines not to show this page”. Visitors can still open it.	Unticked

There are no character counters or SEO scores. Term SEO fields are on the edit form only, not on Add New or Quick Edit; until you edit a term, it uses the pattern.

With Yoast SEO or Rank Math

Edit SEO in the SEO plugin’s own box, exactly as you normally would. The Companion plugin:

• reads what you type there first;
• keeps a copy of every change, so nothing is lost if you deactivate the plugin;
• hides its own SEO box where the SEO plugin shows one;
• adds a read-only SEO on the storefront panel below the SEO plugin’s box.

The SEO on the storefront panel shows the Title and Description the storefront will actually print, as last saved, and where each comes from: “Typed in” the SEO plugin, “Kept by Retail Store Companion”, “From the pattern in StoreFront → Settings → SEO”, or “Nothing is typed and no pattern is set”. The SEO plugin’s own preview shows its template and the WordPress address, which the storefront does not use, so trust this panel instead.

Where the SEO plugin shows no box of its own, the plugin’s SEO fields appear instead:

• Yoast SEO shows its box on terms by default, so the plugin’s term fields are hidden.
• Rank Math hides its term boxes by default, so the plugin’s SEO rows usually stay visible on category, tag and brand screens. Rank Math only counts as in use once its setup wizard is complete.

Journal articles take their SEO the same way: from the SEO plugin or the plugin’s SEO box on the post.

Product addresses and redirects

The storefront is the public home of each product, so search engines should only see its address:

• A published product’s WordPress page permanently redirects (301) to the same product on the storefront, once a Storefront URL is set.
• Drafts, an editor’s own preview, feeds and listing pages are not redirected.
• Nothing is redirected while the Storefront URL is blank, or when it is on the same host as WordPress.

Details are in Products. The storefront also publishes its own sitemap.xml and robots.txt, and keeps private pages such as cart, checkout and account out of search results. See the SEO feature.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
A title you set in Yoast or Rank Math’s settings is ignored	Templates in the SEO plugin don’t apply to the storefront.	Put the template in Patterns on the SEO tab.
The SEO box is missing on a product	Yoast SEO or Rank Math is in use and shows its own box.	Edit in that plugin’s box; check the SEO on the storefront panel.
A “Run Sync SEO” notice keeps showing	No sync has finished since the SEO plugin became the one in use.	Click Sync SEO on the SEO tab and let it finish.
“There is nothing to sync with”	Neither Yoast SEO nor Rank Math is active.	No sync is needed; use the plugin’s SEO box.
Changes don’t show on the storefront yet	The storefront caches settings for a few minutes.	Wait about 5 minutes and reload.

Next steps

SEO featureStructured data, sitemaps and what the storefront prints.

ProductsPreview links and the product redirect.

Pages and contentPolicy pages and journal articles.

AI agentsLet an AI assistant find and fill SEO gaps.