I am currently in the process of updating my website, and I’ve noticed that the product pages are not being indexed properly. I’ve already submitted a request for the manual update of product URLs in Google Search Console. In my research, I used the tool https://totheweb.com/learning_center/tools-search-engine-simulator/ to see how my website appears to Google, and I was surprised to find that the product listings on my item group page are not showing. This discovery has shed light on why my product pages may not be getting indexed as expected.
While I appreciate the powerful features of ERPNext, especially for someone without coding experience, I am now reconsidering the decision to move away from WordPress. There seem to be additional SEO issues that need attention. I’m hopeful that the ERPNext team will address these concerns, as I’m keen to resolve these matters and ensure optimal performance for my website.
Meta Tags aren’t a big issue for me. The product listing on the item group page doesn’t load in HTML; instead, it’s rendered through JavaScript or another programming method. When you inspect the page source, you won’t find the product listing, making it difficult for Google to read and index.
Moreover, essential elements like the Product Title are not displayed in H1 tags on the front end. Surprisingly, the product detail page doesn’t use header tags for some unknown reason.
Frappe/ERPNext excel in solving a set of problems very different from this.
Consider using Next.js for your front-end. And if you are concerned about the e-commerce functionality, or if e-commerce is the main function of your business, I would seriously consider other platforms that are built for e-commerce specifically
One thing that worked for me was switching to something like Next.js for the front end. It helps make the content more search-engine friendly because it can do server-side rendering, which basically means Google can “see” your pages better.
If you want an SEO friendly website, It’s better to not complicate your life and use a full features CMS like Wordpress then use the rest API to push your products or posts. For example, erpnext has a good integration with Woocommerce. You can also use n8n which is an automation tool that support erpnext and over 400 others apps wordpress included. n8n is free and open source, it’s a great tool to integrate and automate tasks.
Another thing to think about is dynamic rendering—kind of a halfway fix if you’re stuck with JavaScript-heavy pages. Tools like Google Search Console are great for spotting issues, but they won’t fix how the site is actually built.
If organic traffic is a big deal for you, maybe chat with someone who knows their stuff about SEO. When I was dealing with this, I got some help from a digital marketing agency Queens NY, and they pointed out a bunch of things I hadn’t even thought about.