How do I hide a Shopify page with the seo.hidden metafield?

Definition: As of 17 October 2026, Shopify's searchability documentation defines seo.hidden as a system metafield, a data field whose integer value 1 hides a page from search engines, sitemaps, and Shopify's online store search.

Key facts

• Shopify's searchability documentation supports the field on pages, products, and blog posts; third-party apps can also use it.
• Shopify's developer guide, Optimize storefront SEO, specifies namespace seo, key hidden, type number_integer, and value 1.
• Shopify's sitemap documentation locates the automatically generated sitemap at the store domain's root, for example example.com/sitemap.xml.

How is the metafield definition created?

A metafield definition specifies the field's configuration. Shopify's admin instructions give this path: Settings > Metafields and metaobjects > Metafield definitions > Pages > Add definition. The documented settings are:

Name: SEO Hidden
Namespace and key: seo.hidden
Type: Integer
Values: One value
Validations: Maximum value: 1

After saving the definition, the individual page's Metafields section accepts 1 in SEO Hidden. Saving the page applies the setting.

What if the namespace and key are already taken?

Shopify's migration documentation explains that unstructured metafields are existing fields without definitions. The admin offers View unstructured metafields, sometimes under More actions, for the selected store resource type.

The existing namespace and key have an Add definition action. The procedure includes choosing a content type, configuring validation, saving, reviewing validation results, and selecting Save definition. Shopify warns that adding a definition to a field an app requires can affect the app's operation; the definition's validation rules constrain values entered by both administrators and apps.

How can the search and sitemap effects be checked?

A noindex instruction asks supporting search engines to exclude a page from their index; nofollow gives a hint about following its links. Shopify's page-checking guide explains these controls and shows this tag in the public page's HTML source. Shopify's developer documentation confirms that the metafield adds both instructions automatically:

<meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow">

The sitemap documentation explains that the root sitemap links to separate sitemaps for webpages and other content types. The webpage sitemap is therefore the place to check whether the target page's URL remains listed.

Google's noindex documentation requires crawler access to read the instruction: a robots.txt block can prevent processing. Google must crawl the updated page before acting on the tag. Its URL Inspection tool shows the HTML received by Googlebot, and the Page Indexing report records pages where Googlebot extracts noindex.

Related terms

• noindex
• XML sitemap
• Can I manually edit Shopify's generated sitemap?
• Can Google read noindex on a page blocked by robots.txt?

FAQ

Can visitors still open the page?

Yes. Shopify's noindex guide states that the page stays published and visitors can open its URL. You need an access restriction if the content requires privacy.

How do I turn the setting off?

Shopify's admin procedure tells you to delete the SEO Hidden value, leave the field blank, and save. This removes the field's search restriction.

Sources

1. Shopify Help Center, "Managing searchability", undated
2. Shopify Developers, "Optimize storefront SEO", undated
3. Shopify Help Center, "Finding and submitting your sitemap", undated
4. Shopify Help Center, "Migrating metafields", undated
5. Shopify, "How To Noindex a Shopify Page With Metafields (2026)", 9 October 2026
6. Google Search Central, "Block Search indexing with noindex", 10 December 2025

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