Set up SEO for a new online store

To do SEO for an ecommerce website, start where search engines start: with its pages, its words and its links. Your Formahand store already does the groundwork: a title and description for every page, a sitemap, a robots file and redirects when you rename things. This guide covers what it does for you, and the few things only you can write.

What your store does on its own

You do not need to install anything for the basics:

• A title and description on every page. Your store writes them for each product, collection, page and post. You only replace the ones you want to improve.
• A sitemap at /sitemap.xml with your home page, your collections, your active products, your published pages and your published posts.
• A robots file at /robots.txt that points search engines at the sitemap.
• Redirects when you rename things. Change the address of a product, collection, page or post, and the old address sends people to the new one.

One thing to know early: while your store is closed, its robots file asks search engines to stay out, and its sitemap lists nothing below the home page. Nothing below the "Coming soon" page shows up in search until you open the store.

Step 1: write your store's search words

1. Open Online Store → Search & sharing.
2. Under How your store appears, write a Title of up to 60 characters. Name what you sell, not only your brand.
3. Write a Description of up to 160 characters: what you sell, for whom, and one reason to visit.
4. Leave Same text when shared on, or turn it off to write a different title and description for the card people see when they share your link.
5. Check that Hide store from search is off. When it is on, search engines are asked to leave your whole store out.
6. Press Save.

The preview at the top shows how your title, address and description will read. If you are stuck for words, Write with AI beside a field suggests text, and nothing changes until you save.

Step 2: give your key pages their own words

Your best sellers and your most important pages deserve their own title and description.

1. Open Products and the product.
2. Open its Search part.
3. Write a Search title (up to 60 characters) and a Search description (up to 160).
4. Add a Share image if you want a particular picture when the page is shared.
5. Save.

Pages and posts have the same fields where you write them. Leave a field empty to keep the words your store writes on its own. Hide from search keeps one page out of search, for example a thank-you page. Back on Search & sharing, Per-page words lists every page that has its own.

Step 3: use your own domain

A store is easier to trust, and to remember, on its own domain.

1. Open Online Store → Domains and add your domain with Add domain.
2. Create the one record the screen shows at your domain provider. Custom domains walks through it, and your agent can create it for you from your own computer.
3. When the domain is active, make it your primary address. Your free store address and any other domain then send visitors to it, so search engines see one address for each page.

Step 4: keep old links working

If you are moving from another shop, the pages people and search engines know still point at your old addresses.

1. Open Online Store → Pages & blog and the Redirects tab.
2. Press Add redirect, enter the old path in From and the new one in To, and keep Permanent (301).

A store keeps up to 500 redirects. Move your store from another platform covers the rest of a move.

Step 5: publish something worth finding

Product pages are not the only pages that bring visitors. Posts can answer the questions your customers ask.

1. Open Online Store → Pages & blog and the Blog tab.
2. Write a post in Markdown, add a cover picture and switch it to Published.

Published posts appear at /blog, each at its own address, in an RSS feed at /blog/feed.xml, and in your sitemap. Add /blog to your header or footer menu so readers can find it.

Step 6: send your catalog to shopping engines

Every store publishes its catalog as feeds, with nothing to install: /feeds/google.xml, /feeds/products.csv and /feeds/products.json, plus /llms.txt, a description of your store written for AI agents.

1. Open Integrations and Google Shopping & AI agents to copy the feed addresses.
2. Press Validate feed. It lists the first rows a shopping engine would reject, such as a product with no photo or no description.
3. Fix those products and validate again.

Google Shopping and AI agents explains every field and the Merchant Center steps.

Step 7: open your store

Search engines only see your pages once the store is open. When your products, payments and storefront are ready, open it from Home with Open store.

Step 8: measure and improve

Once your store has been in search for a few weeks, your search engine can tell you which searches showed your pages and which were clicked.

1. Open Online Store → Search engines and connect your search engine. Its report then arrives every day in Analytics, under Search performance.
2. For an engine you have not connected, export the performance report from its search console as a CSV file, then open Analytics, find Search performance and press Import CSV.
3. Switch between search terms and pages to see which pages are shown often but rarely clicked.
4. Rewrite the titles and descriptions of those pages, as in Step 2.

Search engines, Content and SEO and Analytics have the details.

With your agent

Every step above has a tool, so an agent can do the work and you review it:

• get_seo, set_seo and list_seo_overrides read and write the store's words and each page's own, collections included.
• set_redirect and list_redirects manage redirects.
• upsert_post writes posts.
• check_feed finds the products a shopping engine would reject.
• get_search_performance reads your search report, and import_search_performance uploads an export for an engine you have not connected.

These changes are live as soon as they are saved; they do not wait for a storefront publish. Open an online store with your AI agent shows how to connect one.