How do I hide my shop from Google while I build it?

The store owner opens Admin › Online store › Marketing & SEO › SEO settings, turns on Hide the whole store from Google and presses Save. Google and other search engines are then asked not to list any page of the shop. Turn it off before you start selling.

Where to find it

Admin › Online store › Marketing & SEO › SEO settings (মার্কেটিং ও SEO › এসইও সেটিংস), in the Owner only box.

Only the store owner (Super Admin) sees this switch. An Admin can open the SEO page for the home page texts, but the Owner only box is not shown to them, and the switch cannot be saved by anyone else.

Step by step

Sign in as the store owner and open SEO.
Scroll to the Owner only box.
Turn on Hide the whole store from Google.
Press Save. You see "SEO settings saved", and a yellow note at the top says the store is hidden from Google.

To show the shop again, turn the switch off and press Save.

How it works

While the switch is on:

Every page of the shop carries noindex, nofollow, so search engines do not list it.
/robots.txt says Disallow: /, closing the whole site to crawlers.
/sitemap.xml lists nothing.

The shop itself still opens normally. Anyone with the link, you and your team included, can visit it and place test orders.

Good to know

Turn it off before launch. As long as it is on, people cannot find your shop on Google. This is the most common reason a new shop never shows up.
Coming back takes time. After you turn it off, Google has to visit again. Submitting your sitemap in Search Console helps.
It is not a password. It does not stop people who have the address. Do not keep real customer data on a shop you think is "private".
One product only? To keep a single product out of Google, use Hide from Google in that product's SEO (Google) section instead.
Your shop only. The switch affects your store alone, never another store.

Common problems

I cannot see the switch. You are not signed in as the store owner. Ask the owner to do it.
My shop is still on Google after I turned it on. Google removes pages only after it visits them again. This can take days.

Still need help? Ask in our Facebook group — the team and other shop owners answer there.

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